HISTORY 

AND 

STORIES  2FNEBRASKA 


SHELDON 


w 


(ii;ouGE  CATLIN  PAINTING  AN  INDIAN  CHIEF 


HISTORY 

AND 

STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


BY 

ADDISON  ERWIN  SHELDON 

DIRECTOR    NEBRASKA    LEGISLATIVE    REFERENCE    BUREAU 

LECTURER  QN  NEBRASKA  HISTORY  AND  INSTITUTIONS 

UNIVERSITY  OF  NEBRASKA 


WITH  MAPS  A\'D  ILLUSTRATIONS 


CHICAGO  AND  LINCOLN 

THE  UNIVERSITY  PUBLISHING  CO. 

1918 


COPYRIGHT,  1913 
THE  UNIVERSITY  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


All  Rights  Reserved 


(The 

R.  R.  DONNELLEY  &  SONS  COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


TO  THREE  CHILDREN, 

BORN  ON  THE  NEBRASKA  FRONTIER. 

ESTHER,   PHILIP  AND  RUTH, 

WHO  HAVE  SO  OFTEN  COAXED  FOR  "  REAL  TRUE  STORIES  "  OF 

THE  PIONEER  DAYS  OF  THE  WEST.  THIS  BOOK 

IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 


1781441 


PREFACE 

OTORIES  are  the  harp  strings  of  history,  transforming 
^  the  past  into  melody  and  rhythm.  The  best  stories 
live  forever  in  the  human  mind.  They  greet  us  in  the 
Latin,  Teutonic,  and  Celtic  tongues,  surprise  us  in  the 
ancient  Greek,  Arabic,  and  Hindoo  literature,  and  astonish 
us  in  the  rude  folk  tales  of  primitive  peoples  who  have  no 
written  language.  The  demand  for  a  good  story  is  as 
wide,  as  unsatisfied  as  human  longing,  and  the  search  for 
a  new  one  as  difficult  and  elusive  as  the  discovery  of  a 
new  element  in  nature. 

Stories  are  the  inspiration  of  patriotism  and  of  home 
virtues.  No  land  is  loved  without  its  place  tales,  and  no 
nation  became  great  without  the  lift  of  noble  examples  and 
ideals  in  the  stories  of  its  common  people.  Every  hill  and 
mountain  must  find  its  hero,  every  vale  and  prairie  its 
legend,  ere  it  becomes  invested  with  living  human  in- 
terest. 

With  the  flight  of  years  the  deeds  of  pioneers  in  a  new 
land  are  transformed  into  the  hero  tales  and  place  legends 
of  the  later  generations.  It  is  well  that  in  the  process  what 
is  brave,  generous,  and  strong  survives;  what  is  common, 
mean,  and  trivial  perishes.  In  Nebraska  the  pioneer  period 
is  just  past.  The  pioneers  are  with  us  still.  Men  yet  live 
who  knew  these  prairies  as  a  sea  of  grass  wherein  appeared 
no  island  of  human  habitation.  We  have  yet  with  us  those 
who  hunted  deer  and  buffalo  on  the  sites  of  our  cities,  who 
followed  the  overland  trails  and  faced  hostile  Indians  where 
now  extend  fruitful  fields  of  corn,  wheat,  and  alfalfa. 
Children  born  in  sod  houses,  dugouibs,  and  even  in  emigrant 
wagons  now  direct  the  affairs  of  our  commonwealth.  The 
pioneer  days  are  past,  but  their  witnesses  are  in  our  midst. 


vi  PREFACE 

It  is  well  for  us  to  recount  their  deeds  while  they  are  still 
among  us. 

The  purpose  of  this  little  book  is  to  present,  in  story 
form,  the  most  important  facts  in  Nebraska  history  in  such 
language  that  a  child  able  to  read  may  get  the  story  and  a 
grown  man  or  woman  may  find  interest  in  both  fact  and 
story. 

It  is  seven  years  since  the  idea  of  this  volume  was  con- 
ceived and  the  first  story  written.  Of  the  hundreds  of 
good  and  true  stories  of  our  history  only  a  few  could  be 
chosen  for  the  present  volume.  As  the  list  of  short  stories 
grew  and  formed  itself  naturally  into  a  series  reaching  from 
the  Stone  Age  to  the  present  time,  there  arose  a  call  for  a 
condensed  narrative  which  should  connect  the  different 
periods  and  form  an  historical  thread  upon  which  the  short 
stories  might  be  strung.  The  response  to  this  call  is  the 
Story  of  Nebraska  in  a  series  of  short  connected  sketches. 
Thus  in  its  final  form  the  book  presents  a  brief  history  of 
our  state  and  stories  which  seem  significant  and  truly 
characteristic  in  her  development. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  is  due  to  the  many  persons 
who  have  entered  into  the  spirit  of  this  volume  and  aided 
in  its  progress.  First  among  these,  I  am  indebted  to  her 
whom  I  need  not  name,  whose  clear  insight  and  creative 
criticism  as  a  native  daughter  of  Nebraska  have  been  the 
largest  element  in  securing  its  present  form.  From  Pro- 
fessors Howard  W.  Caldwell,  Clark  E.  Persinger,  Lawrence 
Bruner,  Erwin  H.  Barbour,  and  George  E.  Condra,  of  the 
University  of  Nebraska,  have  come  valuable  aids  and  sug- 
gestions. Important  service  in  gathering  material  was 
rendered  by  the  following  persons : 

Mr.  James  Murie,  Pawnee,  Oklahoma;  Mrs.  Lucy 
Manville  Sprague,  Thedford,  Nebraska;  Hon.  C.  W.  Beal, 
Broken  Bow,  Nebraska;'  Supt.  E.  T.  Ingle,  Ft.  McPherson 
Cemetery;  Colonel  James  Hunton,  Ft.  Laramie,  Wyoming; 
Hon.  H.  T.  Clarke,  Omaha,  Nebraska;  Hon.  H.  G.  Taylor, 


PREFACE  vii 

Central  City,  Nebraska;  Mr.  James  F.  Hanson,  Fremont, 
Nebraska;  Colonel  C.  W.  Allen,  Merriman,  Nebraska; 
Colonel  C.  P.  Jordan,  Wood,  South  Dakota;  Mrs.  Daniel 
Freeman,  Beatrice,  Nebraska;  Mr.  E.  A.  Kilian  (deceased), 
Manhattan,  Kansas;  Mr.  Robert  Harvey, Lincoln, Nebraska; 
Hon.  Addison  Wait,  Lincoln,  Nebraska;  Hon.  C.  H.  Aldrich, 
Lincoln,  Nebraska;  Mr.  R.  F.  Gilder,  Omaha,  Nebraska; 
Hon.  T.  H.  Tibbies,  Omaha,  Nebraska;  Mr.  S.  D.  Butcher, 
Kearney,  Nebraska;  Mr.  Gerrit  Fort,  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
way, Omaha,  Nebraska;  Mr.  U.  G.  Cornell,  Lincoln, 
Nebraska;  Miss  Martha  M.  Turner,  Lincoln,  Nebraska; 
Morrill  Geological  Expeditions,  Lincoln,  Nebraska;  Hon. 
S.  C.  Bassett,  Gibbon,  Nebraska;  Rev.  Michael  A.  Shine, 
Plattsmouth,  Nebraska;  Nebraska  State  Journal,  Lincoln, 
Nebraska. 

For  use  of  copyrighted  illustrations  acknowledgment  is 
due  to  these:  Hon.  R.  B.  Brower,  St.  Cloud,  Minnesota; 
Lathrop  C.  Harper,  New  York  City;  Arthur  H.  Clark  Co., 
Cleveland,  Ohio;  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago,  Illinois; 
American  Folk  Lore  Society. 

It  is  my  hope  that  this  little  book  may  not  only  serve  a 
present  need,  by  presenting  in  brief  form  for  busy  people 
the  story  of  our  state,  but  may  have  a  place  in  bringing 
together  the  best  in  the  Nebraska  life  which  has  been,  for 
the  enjoyment  and  inspiration  of  the  Nebraska  that  is  to  be. 

ADDISON  E.  SHELDON. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I.    STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

THE  STORY  OF  CORONADO .  1 

DON  DIEGO  DE  PENALOSA 6 

BARON  LA  HONTAN  AND  MATHIEU  SAGEAN     ...  9 

THE  SPANISH  CARAVAN 12 

THE  MALLET  BROTHERS 15 

BLACKBIRD 18 

LEWIS  AND  CLARK 24 

How  THE  SPANISH  FLAG  CAME  DOWN 29 

JOHN  COLTER'S  ESCAPE 31 

MANUEL  LISA 34 

THE  RETURN  OF  THE  ASTORIANS 41 

MAJOR  LONG'S  EXPEDITION 45 

OLD  FORT  ATKINSON 50 

BELLEVUE 55 

GEORGE  CATLIN 59 

PRINCE  MAXIMILIAN 62 

SCOTT'S  BLUFF 68 

THE  FIRST  NEBRASKA  MISSIONARIES 70 

FATHER  DE&MET     . 77 

JOHN  C.  FREMONT 82 

THE  OVERLAND  TRAILS 85 

LONE  TREE 92 

LOGAN  FONTANELLE 94 

THE  MORMON  Cow 97 

SLAVERY  IN  NEBRASKA .  100 

THE  SURVEYORS 103 

THE  FIRST  HOMESTEAD 110 

THE  PAWNEES 114 

COURT  HOUSE  ROCK 120 

MAJOR  FRANK  NORTH  AND  THE  PAWNEE  SCOUTS      .  122 

ix 


x  CONTENTS 

THE  ROCK  BLUFFS  DINNER  PARTY 129 

THE    BATTLE    OF    ARICKAREE    FORK    OR    BEECHER 

ISLAND 131 

THE  FIRST  RAILROAD        136 

A  STAGE  COACH  HERO  OF  THE  LITTLE  BLUE       .      .  139 

THE  PRAIRIE  FIRE 142 

THE  ARROW  THAT  PINNED  Two  BOYS  TOGETHER    .  145 

Two  Sioux  CHIEFS 146 

GREAT  STORMS 158 

OLD  FORT  KEARNEY 165 

FORT  LARAMIE /.....  167 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  PONCAS .      .  169 

BRIGHT  EYES 175 

THE  HERD  LAW      .      .     .     .  ' 178 

Two  CROWS       .     .     .    . .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .181 

THE  GRASSHOPPERS 183 

LOST  IN  THE  SAND  HILLS 187 

AN  OPEN  WELL 192 

FORT  McPnERSON  MILITARY  CEMETERY     .      .      .      .198 

A  RAILROAD  FIREMAN'S  JUMP 201 

NEBRASKA'S  GREAT  SEAL 202 

NEBRASKA'S  FLOWER 204 

ARBOR  DAY 206 

PART  II.    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

I.     EARLIEST  NEBRASKA 213 

II.     NEBRASKA  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS       ....  218 
III.     NEBRASKA  INDIANS  AS  THE  WHITE  MEN  FOUND 

THEM 226 

IV.    MAKING  AND  NAMING  NEBRASKA      .      .      .      .231 

V.     NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY 237 

VI.    NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 260 

GLOSSARY 297 

INDEX                                                                            .  299 


(Approximately  half  of  these  illustrations  are  from  original  photographs  taken  by  the  author. 
The  E.  G.  Clements'  collection  and  S.  D.  Butcher  collection  of  Nebraska  photo- 
graphs are  in  the  author's  collection  of  Illustrated  Nebraska.) 

PAGE. 

GEORGE  CATLIN  PAINTING  AN  INDIAN  CHIEF  .        .        .     Frontispiece 

THE  FIRST  PRINTED  PICTURE  OF  A  BUFFALO 3 

A  QUIVIRA  GRASS  HUT 4 

(Courtesy  R.  B,  Brower,  St.  Cloud,  Minn.) 

QUIVIRA  TOMAHAWKS .         5 

A  SPANISH  STIRRUP  FOUND   IN  NEBRASKA 7 

LA  HONTAN'S  MAP  OF  THE  NEBRASKA  REGION       .        .        .        .        .10 
A  SPANISH  SWORD  AND  A  BASKET  HILTED  CAVALRY  SABER  FOUND  IN 

NEBRASKA 13 

THE  PLATTE  RIVER        . 16 

BLACKBIRD  HILL 21 

(From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co., 
Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

PICTURED  ROCKS  NEAR  BLACKBIRD  HILL .22 

LEWIS  AND  CLARK 24 

THE  LEWIS  AND  CLARK  MONUMENT  AT  FORT  CALHOUN,  NEBRASKA        26 

THE  CLARK  MONUMENT  AT  ST.  Louis 28 

BLACKFOOT  WARRIORS 31 

(From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co., 

Cleveland,  Ohio.) 
MANUEL  LISA 34 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 
BRITISH  FLAG  ON  NEBRASKA  ROCKS,  1907       ......       36 

"AUNT  MANUEL,"  FIRST  KNOWN  WHITE  WOMAN  IN  NEBRASKA        .       38 

ROSALIE  LISA  ELY 39 

MONUMENT  TO  THE  ASTORIANS  AT  BELLEVUE,  NEBRASKA    ...       43 
COUNCIL  WITH  OTOES  BY  MAJOR  LONG'S  EXPEDITION.  46 

(From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co., 

Cleveland,  Ohio.) 
MAP  OF  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  DESERT  AS  MADE  BY  MAJOR  LONG,  1820      48 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 
PLAN  OF  FORT  ATKINSON,  NEBRASKA,  1819-1827 50 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 
FLINT  LOCK  AND  CANNON  BALL  FROM  FORT  ATKINSON        ...       53 

A  FORT  ATKINSON  GRAVESTONE 53 

BELLEVUE  IN  1833 56 

(From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co., 

Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

BELLEVUE  WOODS  AS  SEEN  TO-DAY.    TOP  OF  CHILD'S  POINT,  LOOK- 
ING EAST 57 

THE  STEAMER  YELLOWSTONE 

(From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co., 

Cleveland,,  Ohio.)  60 

MISSOURI,  OTO  AND  PUNCAH  INDIANS,  1833 

(From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co.,       66 
Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

xi 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

SCOTT'S  BLUFF 68 

THE  BUILDING  OF  AN  EARTH  LODGE 71 

OLD  OTOE  MISSION         .       .       ... 75 

FATHER  DE  SMET 77 

(From  Chittenden  &  Richardson's  "Life,  Letters  &  Travels  of  Father 

De  Smet."     Francis  P.  Harper,  N.  Y.) 

INDIAN  WELCOME  TO  FATHER  DE  SMET 80 

(From  Chittenden  &  Richardson's  "Life,  Letters  &  Travels  of  Father 
De  Smet."    Francis  P.  Harper,  N.  Y.) 

JOHN  C.  FREMONT 82 

MAP  OF  OVERLAND  TRAILS  AND  HISTORICAL  PLACES  IN  NEBRASKA       .  84 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

OLD  FORT  HALL  ON  THE  OREGON  TRAIL 86 

EMIGRANT  TRAIN  CROSSING  THE  PLAINS 88 

EZRA  MEEKER  AND  HIS  OREGON  TRAIL  WAGON 89 

OREGON  TRAIL  MONUMENT  AT  KEARNEY 89 

STONE  MARKING  OREGON  TRAIL  IN  NEBRASKA 91 

LONE  TREE  MONUMENT 92 

LOGAN  FONTANELLE 94 

SITE  OF  FONTANELLE'S  GRAVE  NEAR  BELLEVUE 95 

ACT  ABOLISHING  SLAVERY  IN  NEBRASKA 101 

(Photo  from  original  in  Slatehouse.) 

MAP  SHOWING  FIRST  PLAN  FOR  NEBRASKA  SURVEY,   1854  .       .       .  103 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

NEBRASKA-KANSAS  MONUMENT,  STARTING  POINT  OF  NEBRASKA  SUR- 
VEYS           ....  105 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

MAP  SHOWING  PROGRESS  OF  SURVEYS  IN  EASTERN  NEBRASKA,  1856       .  106 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

ROBERT  HARVEY,  AN  EARLY  SURVEYOR,  AND  OUTFIT    ....  108 

DANIEL  FREEMAN,  FIRST  HOMESTEADER  IN  UNITED  STATES        .        .  Ill 

THE  FIRST  HOMESTEAD 112 

PAWNEE  EARTH  LODGE 114 

ANCIENT  PAWNEE  POTTERY ...  115 

COURT  HOUSE  ROCK.  AND  JAIL  ROCK         .       .       .       .       .       .        .120 

MAJOR  FRANK  NORTH 122 

SURVIVING  PAWNEE  SCOUTS,  1911 124 

ROCK  BLUFFS  HOUSE  WHERE  ELECTION  WAS  HELD  IN  1866       .        .  130 

LIEUTENANT  GEO.  A.  FORSYTE 131 

ARICKAREE  OR  BEECHER  ISLAND  BATTLEFIELD,  1910     ....  134 
UNION  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  TRAIN  CROSSING  MISSOURI  RIVER  AT  OMAHA, 

1866 ...       .       ...       .137 

STAGE  COACH 139 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

AN  EARLY  PRAIRIE  FIRE 143 

(From  Catlin.) 

RED  CLOUD 147 

SPOTTED  TAIL 151 

RUINS  OF  OLD  RED  CLOUD  AGENCY,  1911 152 

FT.   ROBINSON,   Sioux   COUNTY,    NEBRASKA.     SITE   OF   RED   CLOUD 

AGENCY  AND  SCENE  OF  IMPORTANT  INCIDENTS  IN  Sioux  INDIAN 

WAR 154 

RED  CLOUD'S  TENT  AT  PINE  RIDGE,  1904 156 

PIONEER  SEEKING  SHELTER  ....  163 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

OLD  FORT  KEARNEY  BLOCK  HOUSE  AT  NEBRASKA  CITY      .       .       .  165 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

OLD  EARTHWORKS  AT  FORT  KEARNEY,  1907 165 

FALLEN  COTTONWOOD  TREE  ON  SITE  OF  HEADQUARTERS,  IST  NEBRASKA 

REGIMENT  AT  FT.  KEARNEY,  1864,  AS  SEEN  IN  1907     .        .        .  166 

FORT  LARAMIE  IN  1848 167 

PONCA  LAND  AS  PAINTED  FOR  MAXIMILIAN,  1833 169 

(From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co., 
Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

STANDING  BEAR  AND  FAMILY  IN  1904 172 

BRIGHT  EYES  (!NSTHA  THEAMBA)  MRS.  T.  H.  TIBBLES  ....  175 

HERD  LAW  ACT  OF  1870 179 

(Photo  from  original  in  Statehouse.) 

Two  CROWS  (CAHAE  NUMBA) 181 

WAJEPA      . 182 

IN  GRASSHOPPER  DAYS 184 

THE  SAND  HILLS 187 

A  TYPICAL  FRONTIER  WELL  AND  HOUSE 196 

FORT  McPnERSON  MILITARY  CEMETERY 200 

NEBRASKA  TERRITORIAL  SEAL .  203 

NEBRASKA  STATE  SEAL 203 

THE  GOLDENROD,  NEBRASKA'S  FLOWER 204 

FIRST  ARBOR  DAY  PROCLAMATION 207 

(Photo  from  original  in  Statehouse.) 

J.  STERLING  MORTON  AND  ROBERT  W.  FURNAS 209 

A  NEBRASKA  TREE 210 

ANCIENT  NEBRASKA  TOOLS 215 

(Courtesy  R.  F.  Gilder,  Omaha,  Nebraska.) 

ANCIENT  NEBRASKA  HOUSE .  216 

(Courtesy  R.  F.  Gilder,  Omaha,  Nebraska.) 

SPANISH,  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  FLAGS 218 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 
MAP  SHOWING  GRANTS  BY  THE  ENGLISH  KING  AND  THEIR  RELATION 

TO  NEBRASKA  • 222 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

AMERICAN  FLAG 223 

MAP  SHOWING  LAND  CEDED  BY  INDIAN  TRIBES  IN  NEBRASKA  .        .  225 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

MAP  SHOWING  COUNTRY  KNOWN  TO  THE  OMAHA 226 

THE  BUFFALO  HUNT 227 

(From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels.''     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co., 

Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

OMAHA  MISSION  BUILDING  IN  THURSTON  COUNTY,  BUILT  1856,         .  228 

AN  OMAHA  INDIAN  VILLAGE  IN  1860 229 

STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS 233 

NEBRASKA-KANSAS  BILL 235 

(From  original  at  Washington,  D.  C.) 

MAP  OF  NEBRASKA  TERRITORY,  1854 237 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

GOVERNOR  FRANCIS  BURT     .                       238 

NEBRASKA  FERRY  ACROSS  ELKHORN  RIVER,  1854 239 

ACTING  GOVERNOR  THOMAS  B.  CUMING 239 

FIRST  TERRITORIAL  CAPITAL,  1855 240 

FIRST  CLAIM  CABIN  IN  NEBRASKA 241 


xiv  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PETA  LESHARU — CHIEF  OF  THE  PAWNEE  NATION           ....  242 
MORMONS  SETTING  OUT  FROM  FLORENCE,  NEBRASKA,  TO  CROSS  THE 

PLAINS ' 244 

FIRST  COUNTY  MAP  OF  NEBRASKA,  1854 245 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

COUNTY  MAP  OF  NEBRASKA  IN  1856         . 247 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

NEBRASKA  WILDCAT  CURRENCY 248 

SECOND  TERRITORIAL  CAPITOL,  AFTERWARD  OMAHA  HIGH  SCHOOL     .  250 

GOVERNOR  WM.  A.  RICHARDSON 251 

GOVERNOR  SAMUEL  W.  BLACK 253 

PAWNEE  COUNCIL  ROCK 254 

GOVERNOR  ALVIN  SAUNDERS 257 

OUTLINE  MAP  OF  NEBRASKA  IN  1863 258 

(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

FIRST  STATE  CAPITOL  AT  LINCOLN,  1869 260 

THE  THREE  FOUNDERS  OF  LINCOLN .        .  261 

FIRST  LOG  HOUSE  IN  LINCOLN 261 

A  PIONEER  DUGOUT 262 

GOVERNOR  DAVID  BUTLER 262 

GOVERNOR  WILLIAM  H.  JAMES 263 

GOVERNOR  ROBERT  W.  FURNAS .        .  264 

GOVERNOR  SILAS  W.  GARBER 265 

CONSTITUTION  OF  1875  WITH  SIGNATURES 267 

(Photo  from  original  in  Statehouse.) 

GOVERNOR  ALBINUS  NANCE 268 

GOVERNOR  JAMES  W.  DAWES 270 

A  WESTERN  CATTLE  RANGE 271 

A  FRONTIER  NEBRASKA  GRANGER 272 

GOVERNOR  JOHN  M.  THAYER .       .        .  272 

NEBRASKA  STATE  CAPITOL  IN  1889     .               273 

A  FARMERS'  ALLIANCE  CONVENTION 275 

CONGRESSMAN  O.  M.  KEM  OF  CUSTER  COUNTY  AT  HOME  (FIRST  CON- 
GRESSMAN IN  UNITED  STATES  ELECTED  FROM  A  SOD  HOUSE)       .  276 

GOVERNOR  JAMES  E.  BOYD 277 

GOVERNOR  LORENZO  CROUNSE      .........  278 

GOVERNOR  SILAS  A.  HOLCOMB 279 

WILLIAM  JENNINGS  BRYAN  IN  1896 280 

GOVERNOR  WILLIAM  A.  POYNTER        .       .       .       .       .        .        .        .281 

GOVERNOR  CHAS.  H.  DIETRICH 282 

GOVERNOR  EZRA  P.  SAVAGE 282 

GOVERNOR  JOHN  H.  MICKEY 283 

A  NEBRASKA  CORN  CROP 284 

THRESHING  WINTER  WHEAT 284 

IN  LINE  FOR  A  HOMESTEAD 286 

GOVERNOR  GEORGE  L.  SHELDON 287 

GOVERNOR  A.  C.  SHALLENBERGER       .       ...       .       ...        .        .  287 

GOVERNOR  CHESTER  H.  ALDRICH        .       .       .       .       .       .        .        '  288 

GOVERNOR  JOHN  H.  MOREHEAD  .....        .        .        .  289 

MAP  OF  NEBRASKA,  1911 facing  p.  290 

MONUMENT  TO  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  ON  STATE  HOUSE  GROUNDS,  LINCOLN, 

NEBRASKA,  1912       .                       295 

(Courtesy  of  Roy  Hindmarsh,  Lincoln,  Nebraska.) 


INTRODUCTION 

IT  gives  me  pleasure  to  write  a  word  of  welcome  to  this 
collection  of  stories  of  Nebraska  history. 

First,  for  the  sake  of  the  author,  whom  I  have  known 
for  so  many  winters  and  summers,  in  storm  and  in  sunshine, 
and  whom  I  have  found  faithful  and  devoted  to  the  best 
ideals  for  Nebraska  in  public  life  and  in  private  labor. 

Second,  I  am  glad  to  have  part  in  helping  these  stories 
of  Nebraska  to  the  place  they  deserve  in  the  hearts  and 
homes  of  the  people,  that  all  may  better  know  and  love 
their  state  because  they  better  know  its  history. 

We  are  apt  to  value  too  highly  the  distant  scenes  and 
events  and  neglect  those  which  are  about  us.  More  and 
more  we  have  come  to  recognize  that  the  surroundings 
during  the  early  years  of  life  fix  the  characters  of  men  and 
women.  Thus  the  people  of  our  own  locality  are  naturally 
the  objects  of  our  first  interest  and  study.  The  stories  of 
the  men  and  women  who  explored  and  made  Nebraska 
lack  neither  interest  nor  importance  to  any  American,  for 
Nebraska  has  had  a  large  part  in  our  national  life  and  is 
destined  to  have  a  larger  part  in  the  centuries  which  lie 
before  us. 

The  incidents  recorded  in  this  book  take  us  back  to  the 
beginnings  of  organic  life  on  this  part  of  our  planet;  they 
picture  for  us  the  days  when  another  race  made  its  home 
on  our  prairies  and  give  us  glimpses  of  its  life  and  wander- 
ings; they  trace  the  experiences  of  the  early  explorers  as 
they  became  acquainted  with  the  people  and  natural  re- 
sources found  here  and  made  them  known  to  the  larger 
world  without;  they  set  before  us  the  time,  still  in  the 
memory  of  living  men,  when  the  buffalo  and  coyote  roamed 
our  fertile  acres  then  untouched  by  the  plow;  they  tell  us 

XV 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

of  the  risks  and  toils  and  hardships  of  the  men  and  women 
who  have  made  Nebraska  a  great  and  beautiful  state,  and 
set  before  us  examples  of  industry,  patience,  and  heroism 
worthy  our  emulation. 

For  the  children  of  Nebraska  these  stories  have  a  value 
and  interest  surpassing  other  literature.  They  give  to 
their  imaginations  a  local  habitation  and  invest  the  names 
and  annals  of  their  own  state  with  a  sympathetic  value 
which  is  destined  to  be  of  more  worth  to  them  in  future 
years  than  are  our  crops  of  golden  grain. 

There  has  long  been  need  of  such  a  book  as  this  in  the 
schools  and  homes  of  Nebraska.  I  bid  it  welcome  and  wish 
for  it  a  generous  reception  in  this  state  and  in  the  Western 
world. 

HOWARD  W.  CALDWELL, 
Professor  of  American  History, 
University  of  Nebraska. 


PART   I 

Stories  of  Nebraska  History 


THE  STORY  OF  CORONADO 

FRANCISCO  VASQUEZ  CORONADO  and  his  soldiers 
were  the  first  white  men  to  visit  the  Nebraska-Kansas 
plains.  Coronado  was  a  Spanish  general  who  came  to 
Mexico  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  New  World.  While 
there  wonderful  stories  were  brought  by  Fray  Marcos,  a 
monk,  who  had  traveled  a  thousand  miles  north,  into  the 
country  now  called  Arizona.  In  that  land  it  was  said 
were  the  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola,  with  houses  built  of  stone 
many  stories  high,  and  great  abundance  of  gold  and  silver, 
turquoises,  cloth,  sheep,  cows,  and  tame  partridges.  All 
the  Spaniards  in  Mexico  were  eager  to  take  possession  of 
such  a  wonderful  land  and  to  seize  its  riches.  Coronado 
was  the  lucky  man  who  was  made  general  of  the  army  which 
was  sent  out  to  conquer  these  famous  seven  cities.  Three 
hundred  Spaniards  on  horseback  and  a  thousand  Indians, 
with  a  long  train  of  horses  and  cattle  carrying  food  and 
ammunition,  started  in  February,  1540,  on  this  fine  errand. 
After  a  long  and  hard  journey  across  the  desert  the  army 
arrived  at  the  towns  of  the  Zuni  and  Hopi  Indians  in 
Arizona.  They  found  there  what  one  finds  to-day  —  a 
desert  with  houses  made  of  sun-baked  mud,  the  homes  of 
poor  and  peaceful  Indians  who  make  pottery  and  weave 
a  little  cloth  and  raise  corn  and  beans  and  fowls.  The 
riches  and  splendor  of  the  wonderful  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola 
were  a  dream  of  the  desert.  Like  many  other  things  in 

l 


life,  the  farther  off,  the  more  wonderful  —  the  nearer,  the 
more  common. 

The  Spaniards  were  very  much  disappointed.  They  had 
come  so  far  to  conquer  a  people  who  were  hardly  worth 
conquering.  It  would  never  do  to  go  back  to  Mexico  with 
nothing  to  show  for  their  long  journey.  So  Coronado 
marched  eastward  across  New  Mexico  into  the  valley  of 
the  Rio  Grande.  Stretched  along  this  valley  for  many 
miles  were  villages  of  the  Pueblo  Indians.  They  also  were 
poor  and  peaceful,  irrigating  little  patches  of  the  valley 
in  order  to  raise  corn  and  beans,  making  cloth  and  pottery, 
and  living  in  sun-baked  mud  houses.  These  Pueblo  Indians 
treated  the  Spaniards  kindly  and  furnished  them  food. 
The  army  camped  there  for  the  winter.  Quarrels  arose 
between  the  soldiers  and  the  Indians.  The  soldiers  stormed 
the  villages,  killed  many  of  the  Indians,  and  burned  some 
whom  they  took  prisoners.  The  Spaniards  then  tried  to 
conciliate  the  Indians  so  that  they  would  go  on  raising  food 
for  them,  but  up  and  down  the  fair  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande 
there  were  fear  and  hatred  of  the  white  men. 

At  this  time  Coronado  heard  for  the  first  time  the  story 
of  the  land  of  Quivira,  far  to  the  northeast.  An  Indian 
slave  whom  the  Spaniards  called  the  Turk,  because  they 
said  he  looked  like  a  Turk,  told  the  story.  His  home  was 
far  out  on  the  plains,  but  he  had  been  captured  by  the 
Pueblo  Indians  and  held  as  a  slave.  It  is  supposed  that 
he  was  a  Pawnee  Indian,  for  the  Pawnees  wore  their  hair 
in  a  peculiar  way  so  that  they  resembled  Turks.  The 
story  of  Quivira  told  by  the  Indian  slave  was  of  a  wonder- 
ful land  far  across  the  plains.  There  was  a  river  six  miles 
wide,  and  in  it  were  fishes  as  big  as  horses,  and  upon  it 
floated  many  great  canoes  with  twenty  rowers  on  a  side. 
Some  of  these  canoes  carried  sails,  and  the  lords  sat  under 
awnings  upon  them,  while  the  prows  bore  golden  eagles. 
The  king  of  Quivira,  Tatarrax,  slept  under  a  great  tree 
with  golden  bells  on  the  branches.  These  bells  swung  to 


THE  STORY   OF  CORONADO 


THE  FIRST  PRINTED  PICTURE 
OF  A  BUFFALO 


and  fro  in  the  winds  which  always  blew,  and  their  music 
lulled  the  king  to  sleep.  The  common  people  in  Quivira 
had  dishes  of  plated  ware  and  the  jugs  and  bowls  were  of 
gold.  The  king  of  Quivira  worshiped  a  cross  of  gold  and 
an  image  of  a  woman,  the  goddess  of  heaven. 

Stories  like  these  filled  the  hearts  of  the  Spaniards  with 
longing  to  reach  the  land  of  Quivira  and  to  help  the  people 
there  to  take  care  of  its  riches. 
On  the  23d  of  April,  1541,  Coro- 
nado  and  his  army  marched  away 
from  the  Rio  Grande  valley,  guid- 
ed by  the  Turk  and  by  another 
Indian  from  the  same  region, 
whom  they  called  Isopete.  For 
thirty-five  days  they  traveled  out 
upon  the  high  plains.  These 
were  so  nearly  level  they  could 
look  as  far  as  the  eye  would  pierce 
and  see  no  hill.  They  found  great  herds  of  buffalo,  or 
" humpbacked  cows"  as  they  called  them,  on  these  plains, 
and  Indians  who  traveled  around  among  these  cows,  killing 
them  for  their  flesh  and  skins  —  eating  the  flesh  raw  and 
making  the  skins  into  tents  and  clothing.  The  Indians 
had  dogs  to  pull  their  tents  from  place  to  place,  and  had 
never  seen  horses  until  the  Spaniards  came.  The  Spanish 
army  saw  for  the  first  time  the  American  buffalo.  None 
of  these  Indians  who  hunted  the  cows  had  ever  heard  of 
the  rich  land  of  Quivira  with  its  gold  and  silver,  its  great 
canoes,  and  its  king.  Here  the  two  guides  began  to  tell  dif- 
ferent stories,  and  confessed  that  the  houses  in  Quivira  were 
not  quite  so  large  as  they  had  said,  and  the  people  not  so  rich. 

Coronado  and  his  army  had  eaten  all  the  corn  they  had 
brought  with  them  for  food.  The  land  of  Quivira  was  still 
said  to  be  far  to  the  north.  A  council  was  held  and  it  was 
determined  to  send  the  army  back  to  the  Rio  Grande,  while 
Coronado  with  thirty  horsemen  and  two  guides  pushed  on 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


to  find  Quivira.  So  the  army  went  back,  and  Coronado 
with  his  thirty  men  traveled  on,  eating  nothing  but  raw 
buffalo  meat.  After  crossing  a  great  river,  supposed  to 
be  the  Arkansas,  they  came  to  the  country  of  Quivira, 
forty-two  days  after  parting  from  the  army,  or  seventy- 
seven  days  after  leaving  the  Rio  Grande. 

Coronado  says  in  his  letter  to  the  King  of  Spain,  "  Where 
I  reached  Quivira  it  was  in  the  fortieth  degree  (of  latitude)." 
The  fortieth  degree  forms  the  state  line  between  Nebraska 
and  Kansas.  This  would  make  Quivira  in  the  Republican 
valley.  Coronado  found  no  gold,  no  silver,  no  bells  tinkling 
from  the  trees,  no  fishes  big  as  horses,  and  no  boats  with 
golden  prows.  He  found  Indians  living  in  grass  huts,  grow- 
ing corn  and  beans  and  melons,  eating  raw  buffalo  meat 
and  cutting  it  with  stone  knives.  There  were  twenty-five 
of  these  grass  hut  villages,  and  the  only  metal  seen  in  them 
was  a  piece  of  copper  worn  by  a  chief  around  his  neck. 
Coronado  went  on  for  seventy-five  miles  through  the  vil- 

lages of  Quivira  and  came 
to  the  country  called 
Harahey.  The  chief  of 
Harahey  met  them  with 
two  hundred  men,  all 
naked,  with  bows  and 
arrows  and  "some  sort 
of  things  on  their  heads," 
which  probably  means 
the  way  they  put  up  their 

b™>    ^nd    suggests    that 

they  were  Pawnees.  Here 
the  Turk  confessed  he 

had  lied  to  the  Spaniards  about  the  riches  of  Quivira  in 
order  to  lead  the  army  off  on  the  trackless  plains  where  it 
would  perish.  "We  strangled  him  that  night  so  that  he 
never  waked  up,"  is  the  way  one  of  the  Spaniards  tells  the 
story  of  what  happened  to  the  Turk. 


, '  •-*.*  ^    ' 


A  QUIVIRA  GRASS  HUT.     (Courtesy  R.  B. 

Brower,  St.  Cloud,  Minn.) 


THE  STORY  OF  CORONADO 


Coronado  spent  a  month  in  Quivira  and  Harahey.  He 
wrote  that  the  country  was  the  best  he  had  seen  since 
leaving  Spain,  for  the  land  was  very  fat  and  black,  and  well 
watered  with  rivulets  and  springs  and  rivers.  He  found 
nuts  and  plums  and  very  good  sweet  grapes  and  mulberries 
to  eat,  and  plenty  of  grass  and  wild  flax  and  sumach.  The 
Spaniards  held  a  council  and  resolved  to  go  back  to  Mexico, 
for  they  feared  trying 
to  winter  in  the  country 
so  far  from  the  rest  of 
the  army.  So  Coronado 
raised  a  great  cross,  and 
at  the  foot  of  it  he  made 
some  letters  with  a  chisel, 
which  said  that  Fran- 
cisco Vasquez  de  Coro- 
nado, general  of  the 
army,  had  arrived  there. 
The  Spaniards  then 
marched  away,in  the  month  of  August,  1541, almost  four  hun- 
dred years  ago,  and  left  the  land  of  Quivira,  with  its  fat,  black 
soil,  its  beautiful  rivulets  and  springs  and  rivers,  its  great 
prairies  of  grass  and  its  nuts,  plums,  good  sweet  grapes  and 
mulberries,  its  queer  cows  with  humped  backs  and  its 
Indians  living  in  grass  huts  and  eating  raw  buffalo  meat. 
And  no  one  has  yet  found  the  great  cross  the  Spaniards 
raised  with  the  name  of  Coronado  upon  it.  Nor  has  any 
one  yet  found  the  tree  covered  with  golden  bells  under  which 
Tatarrax,  the  great  king  of  Quivira,  sleeps,  lulled  by  the 
music  of  the  bells. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Are  you  sorry  that  Coronado  and  his  army  did  not  find  the  seven  cities 

of  Cibola,  as  Fray  Marcos  had  described  them?     Why? 

2.  Are  the  people  whom  you  know  as  ready  to  believe  big  stories  as  were 

Coronado  and  his  army?     Account  for  any  difference. 

3.  Do  you  know  any  person  who  has  seen  the  buffalo  roaming  over  our 

Nebraska  plains?     If  so,  tell  what  you  have  heard  him  say  about  them. 

4.  What  are  the  chief  differences  between  the  land  of  Quivira  as  described 

by  Coronado  and  the  part  of  Nebraska  in  which  you  live? 


QUIVIRA  TOMAHAWKS.     (From   photograph 
by  A.E.  Sheldon.) 


DON  DIEGO  DE  PENALOSA 

OUT  of  the  musty  old  Spanish  documents  of  two  hundred 
years  ago  comes  to  us  the  strange  story  of  Don  Diego 
de  Penalosa  and  his  wonderful  expedition  across  the  plains 
to  the  kingdom  of  Quivira.  It  was  in  the  year  1660,  so  runs 
the  tale,  that  Don  Diego  came  to  Santa  Fe  to  be  governor 
and  captain  general  of  New  Mexico.  He  drove  back  the 
fierce  Apaches  who  raided  the  peaceful  Pueblos  along  the 
Rio  Grande,  but  his  heart  was  restless  and  unsatisfied.  He 
longed  to  make  a  great  name  for  himself  as  did  Cortez  in 
Mexico  and  Pizarro  in  Peru.  It  was  a  hundred  and  twenty 
years  since  Coronado  marched  to  Quivira  and  found  there 
nothing  but  straw  houses  and  naked  savages.  Still  the  old 
story  of  a  kingdom  full  of  gold  and  silver  beyond  the  great 
plains  persisted.  Still  the  mystery  of  the  great  unknown 
region  in  the  north  stirred  the  Spanish  love  of  conquest. 

It  was  on  March  6, 1662,  that  Don  Diego  de  Penalosa  left 
the  province  of  New  Mexico  to  find  and  conquer  this  fabled 
land  of  riches.  With  him  there  marched  eighty  Spanish 
knights  and  a  thousand  Indian  allies,  while  six  cannon,  eight 
hundred  horses,  three  hundred  mules  and  thirty-six  wagons 
bore  their  baggage. 

Like  Coronado,  Penalosa  marched  north  two  hundred 
leagues,  nearly  seven  hundred  miles.  On  his  way  he  found 
the  great  Indian  nation  of  the  Escanzaques  with  3,000 
warriors  starting  for  war  with  the  people  of  Quivira.  These 
joined  the  Spaniards.  Together  they  traveled  northeast  un- 
til they  came  to  a  broad  river  flowing  east.  They  followed 
its  southern  bank  for  a  day,  when  the  river  made  a  great  bend 
and  flowed  from  the  north.  Signal  fires  blazed  from  the 
hills  telling  that  their  approach  was  seen.  They  kept  on 
until  they  saw  another  fine  river  of  clear  water  flowing  from 

6 


DON   DIEGO   DE   PENALOSA 


the  north  to  join  the  one  along  whose  banks  they  marched. 
Westward  of  this  was  a  great  city  in  a  vast  level  plain. 
There  were  thousands  of  houses,  some  two,  some  three,  some 
four  stories  high,  well  built  of  hard  wood  resembling  walnut. 
The  city  extended  for  leagues  westward  along  the  plain  to 
where  another  clear  flowing  stream  came  from  the  north  to 
join  the  broad  river  along  which  they  marched. 

Seventy  chiefs  came  from  this  city  to  greet  Penalosa, 
bringing  rich  presents  of  fur  robes,  pumpkins,  corn  and  beans 
and  fresh  fish  for  food.  A  great  council  was  held  and  peace 
proposed. 

That  night  the  warriors  of  the  Escanzaque  tribe  stole  away 
from  the  Spanish  camp  and  raided  the  city  of  Quivira,  kill- 
ing, plundering,  and  burning.  In  the  morning  it  was  in 
ashes  and  thousands  of  its  peaceful  people  dead  or  dying. 
Among  its  blackened  ruins  the  Spanish  commander  sought  in 
vain  for  chiefs  who  met  him  in  friendly  council  the  day  be- 
fore. The  great  city  was  destroyed  never  to  be  rebuilt  and 
its  few  survivors  scattered  never  to  return.  On  June  11, 
1662,  Don  Diego  de  Penalosa  with  his  great  train  marched 
sadly  back  to  the  Rio 
Grande  there  to  relate 
the  destruction  of  the 
great  city  of  Quivira. 

A  Nebraska  author, 
Judge  Savage,  of  Oma- 
ha, has  traced  the  route 
of  Penalosa  upon  the 
map,  has  measured  the 
miles  marched  from 
Santa  Fe  and  found  that 
Penalosa  reached  the 
Platte  near  Louisville. 
He  believes  that  Penalosa  marched  one  day  west  to  the 
site  of  Ashland  where  the  Platte  makes  a  bend  and  flows 
from  the  north,  that  the  Elkhorn  was  the  first  river 


A  SPANISH  STIRRUP  FOUND  IN  NEBRASKA. 
(From  photograph  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


8  STORIES   OF  NEBRASKA 

flowing  from  the  north  to  join  the  Platte  and  the  Loup 
the  second  river,  and  that  between  the  Loup  and  the 
Elkhorn  rivers  not  far  from  the  present  town  of  Columbus 
was  the  city  of  Quivira  destroyed  by  the  Escanzaques,  who 
were  the  Kanzas  tribe.  The  numerous  sites  between  the 
Loup  and  Elkhorn  rivers  where  fragments  of  pottery  and 
other  Indian  relics  are  found  to-day  are  remains  of  the  great 
city  of  Quivira  destroyed  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

The  legend  of  Penalosa  is  too  wonderful  to  be  true.  It 
is  now  known  to  be  a  fiction.  There  was  a  Governor  Don 
Diego  de  Penalosa  of  New  Mexico  but  no  such  army  as  re- 
lated was  led  by  him  across  the  plains  and  there  certainly  was 
no  great  city  of  Quivira  with  houses  three  and  four  stories 
high  covering  the  plain  between  the  Loup  and  Elkhorn 
rivers.  We  must  part  with  Penalosa 's  expedition  as  an 
historical  event,  but  bid  it  welcome  and  give  it  place  in  the 
realm  of  romance  with  other  wonder  stories  of  the  time  when 
people  knew  but  very  little  of  the  land  where  we  now  live 
and  used  their  imagination  instead  of  their  eyes  in  describing 
it. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  were  wonderful  stories  about  this  country  so  long  believed  which 

have  since  been  found  to  be  untrue? 

2.  Can  you  tell  how  to  write  an  untrue  story  so  that  all  the  people  shall 

always  believe  it? 


BARON  LA  HONTAN  AND  MATHIEU  SAGEAN 

XTEBRASKA  remained  an  unknown  land  to  white  men 
±*  for  many  years  after  Coronado  marched  back  to  the 
valley  of  the  Rio  Grande.  The  earliest  Frenchmen  who 
explored  the  Mississippi  Valley  did  not  reach  this  country. 
They  heard  of  it  from  afar  by  report  of  the  Indians  living 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri.  Far  to  the  north  and  west 
stretched  the  land  and  the  rivers  and  tribes,  they  said.  No 
one  knew  how  far. 

This  unknown  land  where  Nebraska  now  is  became  a 
fine  field  for  romantic  writers.  Two  of  them,  Baron  La  Hon- 
tan  and  Mathieu  Sagean,  deserve  mention  for  their  books 
were  for  many  years  taken  as  true  narratives  of  travels  in  this 
region. 

Baron  La  Hontan  was  a  soldier  who  came  from  France  to 
Canada.  In  his  book,  printed  at  The  Hague  in  1704,  he  tells 
of  a  long  journey  made  with  companions  in  a  canoe  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  He  tells  of  a  tribe  which  he  calls  Essanapes, 
who  worshiped  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars.  Beyond 
the  Essanapes  lived  the  Gnascitares,  who  lived  on  the  shore 
of  a  great  lake.  Upon  this  lake  were  canoes  rowed  by  200 
oarsmen.  They  had  buildings  three  stories  high  and  fought 
battles  with  the  Spaniards  in  New  Mexico.  The  great  king 
of  this  country  lived  in  a  royal  palace  waited  upon  by  hun- 
dreds of  servants.  To  make  this  romantic  story  seem  true 
La  Hontan 's  book  has  a  map  of  the  region  where  are  now 
Nebraska  and  South  Dakota.  He  gives  pictures  of  the 
Indians  who  lived  there  and  many  words  from  their  lan- 
guages. None  of  these  had  any  existence  except  in  his 
imagination. 

Mathieu  Sagean 's  story  was  written  by  another  man.  It 
tells  that  Sagean  was  born  in  the  isle  of  Montreal  in  Canada, 

9 


10 


STORIES   OF   NEBRASKA 


that  his  father  and  mother  were  faithful  members  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  that  he  could  read  a  little  but  not 
write,  and  that  twenty  years  before  he  told  his  story  he  left 
Montreal  in  a  bark  canoe  for  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  the  great 
West.  With  a  party  of  eleven  Frenchmen  and  several 
Indians  he  journeyed  west  of  the  Mississippi  until  he  came 
to  the  country  of  the  Acaanibas,  a  great  nation  occupying  a 
region  six  hundred  miles  long.  There  he  found  cities  with 
forts  and  a  king  who  claimed  to  be  a  descendant  of  Monte- 
zuma  who  went  clothed  every  day  in  a  beautiful  robe  of 


«,,r^;ri.:Txx.,rrs«,  •..,,,,,,•,,.;.  ^ 


I 


-*."?'    l 

•\    i 


LA  HONTAN'S  MAP  OF  THE  NEBRASKA  REGION 

ermine.  In  front  of  the  king 's  palace  were  great  idols  many 
feet  high.  Every  morning  the  king  and  his  people  wor- 
shiped before  these  idols,  chanting  songs  from  daybreak  to  the 
rising  of  the  sun.  The  king's  palace  was  three  stories  high 
and  built  of  blocks  of  solid  gold.  He  had  100,000  soldiers, 
three -fourths  of  them  horsemen,  who  camped  around  the 
city.  The  women  were  as  white  and  beautiful  as  those  of 
Europe.  The  people  carried  on  commerce  with  another 
people  so  far  to  the  west  that  a  journey  there  required  six 
months  of  travel.  Sagean  saw  a  caravan  of  three  thousand 
cattle  loaded  with  gold  and  rich  furs  start  on  its  journey. 
These  stories  of  La  Hontan  and  Sagean  are  not  history. 


BARON   LA  HONTAN  AND  MATHIEU  SAGEAN      11 

They  are  wonder  stories  of  imaginary  countries  supposed  to 
have  been  located  in  the  Nebraska  region.  They  show  how 
little  was  really  known  of  our  country  at  the  time  these 
stories  were  printed  and  believed. 


QUESTIONS 

1 .  What  things  in  these  stories  seem  now  to  be  true? 

2.  What  things  seem  untrue? 

3.  When  a  story  is  partly  truth  and  partly  falsehood,  how  can  you  separate 

one  from  the  other? 


THE  SPANISH  CARAVAN 

ONE  of  the  oldest  stories  of  white  men  on  the  Nebraska- 
Kansas  plains  is  that  known  as  the  story  of  the  Spanish 
Caravan.  This  story  has  always  been  wrapped  in  mystery. 
The  early  French  writers  on  the  Missouri  country  tell  it  in 
different  forms.  It  has  been  handed  down  in  various  tribes 
of  Missouri  and  Nebraska  Indians.  The  Spanish  histories 
of  New  Mexico  do  not  mention  it,  but  the  great  American- 
Spanish  scholar,  Adolf  T.  Bandelier,  says  he  found  record  of 
it  in  the  archives  of  the  Franciscan  monks  and  retells  it  in  his 
book  "The  Gilded  Man."  There  is  great  variation  in  the 
versions  of  the  Spanish  Caravan  story,  but  they  agree  in  the 
main  features,  which  are  these: 

In  the  year  1720,  a  Spanish  army  marched  out  of  Santa 
Fe  to  conquer  the  Missouri  valley  country.  There  were 
several  hundred  armed  men  besides  women,  children,  a 
Franciscan  monk  and  a  great  number  of  horses  and  cattle. 
Comanche  Indians  went  along  as  guides  and  allies.  Their 
plan  was  to  conquer  the  Missourias,  the  Otoes,  the  Pawnees, 
and  other  Indians  living  near  the  Missouri  River  and  to  col- 
onize the  country  for  Spain.  Somewhere  in  the  region  of 
the  Republican  or  Kansas  River  the  Spanish  Caravan  was 
attacked  by  the  united  nations  whom  they  came  to  destroy. 
All  of  the  Spaniards  were  killed  except  the  Franciscan  monk 
who  was  captured  and  held  prisoner.  He  afterward  escaped 
to  the  French  forts  near  St.  Louis  where  he  told  the  story  of 
his  comrades'  fate. 

Some  of  the  stories  of  the  Caravan  say  that  the  Spanish 
commander  intended  to  get  the  help  of  theOsage  tribe,  which 
was  at  war  with  the  Missourias  and  Otoes.  By  mistake  he 
reached  first  a  village  of  the  Missourias,  whom  he  thought  to 
be  Osages.  He  told  them  of  his  plan  to  conquer  the  Mis- 

12 


THE  SPANISH  CARAVAN 


13 


souria  tribe,  to  make  their  women  and  children  slaves  and  to 
settle  in  their  country.  The  Missouria  chief  understood  the 
mistake.  He  thanked  the  Spaniards  and  told  them  he  would 
join  the  war.  Great  feasts  followed.  The  Missouria  chief 
sent  messengers  to  all  the  friends  of  the  Missouria  tribe. 
Over  two  thousand  warriors  came.  After  a  night  of  feasting 
the  Indians  fell  upon  the  Spaniards  just  at  daybreak  and  in 
a  few  minutes  killed  all  except  the  monk.  All  the  Spanish 
horses  were  captured.  As  the  Indians  did  not  then  know 
how  to  use  horses,  they  made  the  Franciscan  mount  every 
day  and  show  them  how  to  ride.  While  the  Indians  were 
trying  to  imitate  him,  he  mounted  the  best  horse  and  rode 
away  into  the  wilderness,  finally  reaching  the  French  forts. 

Afterwards,  says  one  of  the  French  chroniclers,  the 
Missouri  River  Indians  came  to  the  French  forts  with  the 
sacred  vestments  and  chalices  of  the  church  which  they  had 
taken  from  the  friar. 

Other  accounts  tell  about  the  plunder  of  the  Spanish  camp, 
the  rich  garments,  the  books,  and  a  map 
which  was  seen  in  the  camps  of  the  Ne- 
braska Indians  in  the  years  that  followed. 
Charlevoix,  a  noted  Jesuit  father  who  trav- 
eled in  this  region  and  wrote  an  account  of 
it,  tells  the  story  of  the  Spanish  Caravan 
and  says  that  he  bought  the  spurs  which 
the  Spanish  monk  wore  when  he  escaped 
from  the  Indians  to  the  French. 

At  a  great  council  held  by  the  French 
commander  Bourgmont  with  the  Indians 
of  this  region  in  1724  one  of  the  chiefs 
boasted  how  the  Missourias,  Otoes  and 
Pawnees  had  entirely  destroyed  the  great 
Spanish  army  which  had  come  to  con- 
quer the  Missouri  River  country. 

These  are  some  of  the  stories  of  the  Spanish  Caravan, 
wrapped  partly  in  mystery  and  dispute,  but  with  a  core  of 


A  SPANISH  SWORD 
AND  A  BASKET 
HILTED  CAVALRY 
SABER  FOUND  IN 
NEBRASKA.  (From 
photograph  collec- 
tion of  A.  E.  Shel- 
don.) 


14  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

agreement  and  truth.  The  truth  is  that  an  attempt  was 
made  by  the  Spaniards  at  Santa  Fe  to  conquer  and  settle  the 
rich  land  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  which  had  been  discov- 
ered by  Coronado  nearly  two  centuries  before ;  and  that  their 
expedition  was  defeated  by  the  Nebraska  Indians. 

We  know  that  the  Indians  of  the  Nebraska  country  kept 
the  Spanish  settlements  in  New  Mexico  in  fear  for  many 
years.  And  in  the  year  1824,  a  hundred  years  after  the  time 
of  the  Spanish  Caravan,  the  city  of  Santa  Fe  sent  an  em- 
bassy to  Fort  Atkinson,  in  our  state,  to  make  peace  with  the 
Pawnees  and  bring  to  an  end  the  raiding  of  the  Rio  Grande 
valley  by  their  war  parties. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  What  reasons  are  there  for  thinking  this  story  of  the  Spanish  Caravan 

not  wholly  a  myth? 

2.  Is  a  tale  apt  to  grow  larger  or  smaller  when  retold  a  number  of  times? 

Why? 


THE  MALLET  BROTHERS 

IT  was  almost  two  hundred  years  after  Coronado  and  his 
thirty  Spanish  horsemen  rode  away  from  the  valley  of 
the  Rio  Gra"nde  to  the  kingdom  of  Quivira,  and  then  rode 
back  again,  before  we  have  a  sure  record  of  any  other  white 
men  in  this  region. 

This  time  Frenchmen  came.  They  crossed  the  entire 
state  of  Nebraska,  from  northeast  to  southwest,  and  wrote 
the  story  of  their  travels  in  French.  This  story,  which 
has  only  recently  been  translated  into  English,  is  the 
first  certain  account  we  have  of  the  land  that  is  now 
Nebraska. 

The  men  who  made  this  journey  were  Pierre  Mallet  and 
Paul  Mallet,  brothers,  and  with  them  were  six  other  French- 
men. All  of  these  except  one  were  from  Canada.  They 
started  from  the  French  settlements  in  Illinois,  not  far  from 
where  St.  Louis  now  is.  In  their  story  they  say  that  they 
found  it  was  100  leagues  up  the  Missouri  River  to  the  villages 
of  the  Missouri  Indians.  From  there  it  was  80  leagues  to  the 
Kanzes  Indians  who  lived  not  far  from  where  Kansas  City 
now  is.  From  the  Kanzes  Indians  to  the  Octotatoes  or 
Otoes,  who  lived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Platte,  was  100  leagues. 
From  the  Otoe  village  to  the  river  of  the  Panimahas,  where 
they  found  the  Indian  tribe  of  that  name,  it  was  60  leagues 
farther  up  the  Missouri.  The  earliest  explorers  called  the 
Skidi  Pawnees,  Panimahas.  This  fact  together  with  the 
distance  given  from  the  mouth  of  the  Platte  to  the  Pani- 
maha  River  makes  it  probable  that  these  first  explorers 
of  Nebraska  found  the  Panimaha  Indians  in  what  is  now 
Dakota  County. 

From  this  place  the  Mallet  brothers  and  their  company 
set  out  on  May  29,  1739,  for  the  city  of  Santa  Fe.  They  had 

15 


16 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


THE  PLATTE  RIVER.     (From  photograph  by 
A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


with  them  a  band  of  horses  laden  with  goods  to  trade  with 
the  Spaniards  and  Indians  of  the  Rio  Grande  region.  In  the 
two  hundred  years  since  Coronado  had  crossed  the  plains 
the  Spanish  had  settled  in  New  Mexico  and  built 
cities,  chief  among  them  Santa  Fe.  So  little  was  then  known 

about  the  great  plains 
country  that  all  the  other 
Frenchmen  who  had  tried 
to  reach  Santa  Fe  had 
gone  up  the  Missouri 
River  into  the  Dakotas. 
The  Mallet  brothers,  up- 
on the  advice  of  some 
Indians,  took  a  different 
direction  and  set  out 
southwest  from  the  Pan- 
imaha  Indian  villages. 
June  2d  they  reached  a  river  which  they  named  the 
Platte,  and,  seeing  that  it  took  a  direction  not  much  different 
from  the  one  they  had  in  mind,  they  followed  it,  going  up  its 
left  bank  seventy  leagues.  Here  they  found  that  it  made 
a  fork  with  the  river  of  the  Padoucas.  On  June  13th  they 
crossed  to  the  right  bank  of  the  river  they  were  following,  and, 
traveling  over  a  tongue  of  land,  they  camped  on  the  14th  on 
the  south  bank  of  the  river  of  the  hills  which  here  falls  into 
the  Platte.  From  this  point  they  traveled  south  three  days 
across  high  plains,  during  which  time  they  found  no  wood, 
not  even  for  fire.  These  high  plains  they  said  extended  as 
far  as  the  mountains  near  Santa  Fe.  After  crossing  sev- 
eral smaller  streams  they  reached  the  Arkansas  River 
on  June  20th  and  lost  seven  horses  loaded  with  goods 
in  getting  over  the  river.  On  July  22d  they  arrived  at 
Santa  Fe,  having  traveled  962  leagues  from  the  Panimaha 
villages. 

We  have  only  a  very  short  story  of  their  travels,  but  it  is 
full  of  first  things.     They  named  the  Platte  River.     They 


THE  MALLET  BROTHERS  17 

were  no  doubt  the  first  white  men  to  see  the  forks  of  the 
Platte.  They  were  the  first  white  men  to  travel  over  the 
entire  length  of  Nebraska  and  the  first  traders  to  bring  the 
MiGsouri  valley  and  the  mountains  together. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Trace  on  a  map  of  Nebraska  the  route  these  men  traveled. 

2.  Did  they  take  the  shortest  route  from  St.  Louis  to  Santa  Fe? 

3.  Is  any  river  or  town  or  county  in  Nebraska  called   Mallet?     Has  any 

monument  been  erected  to  .these  men?     How  do  you  account  for  this? 


BLACKBIRD 

(Wazhinga-sah-ba) 

THE  first  Nebraska  Indian  whose  name  we  know  is 
Blackbird.  He  was  head  chief  of  the  Omaha  tribe  and 
lived  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago  in  the  Omaha  coun- 
try, which  then  extended  on  both  sides  of  the  Missouri  River 
from  Bow  River  in  Cedar  County  to  Papillion  Creek  in  Sarpy 
County. 

Blackbird  died  about  the  year  1800,  before  there  were  any 
white  settlements  in  Nebraska.  He  left  behind  him  a  fame 
so  fierce  and  cruel  among  the  Indians  that  it  endures  to  this 
day.  During  Blackbird 's  life  Nebraska  belonged  to  France 
and  Spain  and  French  and  Spanish  traders  came  up  the  river 
to  deal  with  the  Indians  for  furs.  Blackbird  was  one  of  the 
first  Indian  chiefs  on  the  Missouri  to  do  business  with  the 
white  traders.  He  was  very  shrewd  in  his  dealing.  When 
a  trader  came  to  his  village  he  had  him  bring  all  his  goods 
into  the  chief 's  lodge  and  spread  them  out.  Blackbird  then 
selected  the  things  he  wished, —  blankets,  tobacco,  whisky, 
powder,  bullets,  beads  and  red  paint, —  and  laid  them  to  one 
side,  not  offering  any  pay  for  them.  Then,  calling  his  herald, 
he  ordered  him  to  climb  to  the  top  of  the  lodge  and  summon 
all  the  tribe  to  bring  in  their  furs  and  trade  with  the  white 
man.  In  a  few  minutes  the  lodge  would  be  crowded  with 
Indians  bearing  beaver,  buffalo,  otter  and  other  skins.  No 
one  was  allowed  to  dispute  the  prices  fixed  by  the  white 
trader,  who  was  careful  to  put  them  high  enough  to  pay  five 
times  over  for  all  the  goods  taken  by  the  chief. 

Thus  Blackbird  and  the  traders  grew  rich  together,  but 
his  people  grew  poor  and  began  to  complain.  A  wicked 
trader  noticed  this  and  gave  Blackbird  a  secret  by  which  he 

18 


BLACKBIRD  19 

could  maintain  his  power.  He  taught  him  the  use  of  arsenic 
and  gave  him  a  large  supply  of  that  deadly  poison.  After 
that  the  terror  of  Blackbird  and  his  mysterious  power  grew 
in  the  tribe.  He  became  a  prophet  as  well  as  a  chief.  When 
anyone  opposed  him  Blackbird  foretold  his  death  within  a 
certain  time  and  within  that  time  a  sudden  and  violent  dis- 
ease carried  the  victim  off  in  great  agony.  Before  long  all 
his  rivals  disappeared  and  the  people  agreed  to  everything 
Blackbird  wished. 

Blackbird  was  also  a  great  warrior.  When  a  boy  he  was 
captured  by  the  Sioux,  but  escaped  and  fought  them  after- 
ward until  they  feared  his  name.  He  led  his  warriors  against 
the  Pawnees  and  burned  one  of  their  large  towns.  He  took 
scalps  from  the  Otoes  and  from  the  Kanzas  tribes.  To  his 
ability  as  a  fighter  he  added  the  mysterious  art  of  "making 
medicine"  which  would  overcome  his  enemies.  Once  when 
following  the  trail  of  a  hostile  war  party  across  the  prairies  he 
fired  his  rifle  often  into  the  hoofprints  of  their  horses,  telling 
his  band  it  would  cripple  them  so  that  they  would  be  over- 
taken. He  did  overtake  and  kill  them  all  and  his  tribe 
looked  upon  the  fact  as  proof  of  the  wonderful  effect  of  his 
"medicine." 

The  Ponca  Indians  lived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Niobrara 
River,  in  what  is  now  Boyd  and  Knox  counties,  and  were 
neighbors  of  the  Omahas.  The  two  tribes  were  related  and 
spoke  languages  much  alike.  A  party  of  Ponca  young  men 
made  a  raid  on  the  Omahas  and  stole  a  number  of  horses  and 
women.  Blackbird  gathered  all  his  fighting  men  and  started 
to  "eat  up  the  Poncas."  He  drove  them  into  a  rude  fort 
made  by  throwing  up  a  wall  of  dirt.  The  Omahas  greatly 
outnumbered  the  Poncas  and  were  about  to  kill  them  all. 
The  Poncas  sent  a  herald  carrying  a  peace  pipe.  Blackbird 
shot  him  down.  Another  herald  was  treated  in  the  same 
way.  Then  the  head  chief  of  the  Poncas  sent  his  daughter, 
a  young  girl,  in  her  finest  Indian  suit  of  white  buckskin,  with 
the  peace  pipe.  Blackbird  relented,  took  the  pipe  from  the 


20  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

girl's  hand,  smoked  it  and  there  was  peace  between  the 
tribes. 

The  Ponca  maiden  became  the  favorite  wife  of  Blackbird. 
She  had  great  influence  over  him,  but  in  one  of  his  violent 
fits  of  anger  he  drew  a  knife  and  struck  her  dead.  When  he 
knew  what  he  had  done  his  rage  ended  in  violent  grief.  He 
covered  his  head  with  a  buffalo  robe  and  sat  down  by  the 
dead  body,  refusing  to  eat  or  sleep.  He  answered  no  one. 
The  tribe  feared  that  he  would  starve  to  death.  One  of  them 
brought  a  child  and,  laying  it  on  the  ground,  put  Blackbird 's 
foot  upon  its  neck.  This  touched  the  chief's  heart.  He 
threw  off  his  buffalo  robe,  forgot  his  deep  sorrow  and  resumed 
his  duties. 

At  last  an  enemy  came  against  the  Omahas  which  not 
even  Blackbird  with  all  his  medicine  and  mystery  could 
withstand.  This  was  the  smallpox,  the  white  man 's  disease 
which  the  Indians  had  never  known.  It  came  among  them 
like  a  curse.  They  could  not  understand  how  it  traveled 
from  lodge  to  lodge  and  from  village  to  village.  The  fever 
and  the  fearful  blotches  drove  them  wild.  Some  of  them 
left  their  villages  and  rushed  out  on  the  prairies  to  die  alone. 
Others  set  fire  to  their  houses  and  killed  their  wives  and 
children.  Two  thirds  of  the  Omaha  tribe  perished  and  it 
never  after  recovered  its  old  strength  and  power. 

Blackbird,  the  great  chief,  was  finally  stricken.  His 
friends  gathered  about  his  dying  bed  to  hear  his  last  word. 
He  ordered  them  to  bury  him  on  the  top  of  the  great  hill 
which  rose  several  hundred  feet  above  the  Missouri  and  from 
which  one  could  see  up  and  down  the  river  for  thirty  miles. 
Here  the  Indians  watched  for  the  coming  of  the  white  traders, 
and  the  latter  as  they  toiled  against  the  current  saw  its 
summit  with  joy,  for  they  knew  great  springs  of  cold  water 
gushed  from  the  sandstone  rock  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  and 
there  were  rest  and  food  and  friendship  for  the  white  man  in 
the  lodges  of  the  Omaha  village.  On  the  top  of  this  hill 
Blackbird  desired  to  be  buried,  seated  on  his  favorite  horse 


BLACKBIRD 


21 


so  that  his  spirit  might  overlook  the  entire  Omaha  country 
and  first  see  the  boats  of  the  white  men  as  they  came  up  the 
river. 

The  dying  chief's  command  was  carried  out.  The  horse 
was  led  to  the  summit  of  the  hill  with  the  dead  chief  firmly 
fastened  upon  his  back.  Then  the  sod  and  dirt  were  piled 
about  them  in  a  great  mound  until  both  were  buried  from 
sight.  A  pole  was  set  in  the  mound  and  upon  it  were  hung 


BLACKBIRD   HILL. 


(From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels."    Arthur  H. 
Clark  Co.,  Cleveland,  Ohio.) 


scalps  Blackbird  had  taken  in  battle.  From  time  to  time 
food  for  the  spirit  of  the  dead  was  placed  upon  the  mound  by 
the  few  Omahas  who  survived  the  smallpox  scourge  of  1800. 
When  Lewis  and  Clark  came  up  the  river  in  1804  the 
mound  and  pole  were  yet  there.  All  the  other  early  writers 
mention  the  mound.  It  was  the  great  landmark  of  the 
Nebraska  shore.  In  1832  George  Catlin,  the  painter  and 
traveler  who  spent  years  among  the  western  Indians  paint- 
ing their  pictures  and  learning  their  life,  came  down  the 


22 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


PICTURED  ROCKS  NEAR  BLACKBIRD  HILL. 
(From  photograph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


Missouri  and  climbed  up  on  Blackbird  Hill.  There  was  a 
gopher  hole  in  the  side  of  the  mound.  He  dug  into  it  and  a 
skull  dropped  down.  He  quickly  wrapped  it  in  a  blanket 

and  carried  it  to  Wash- 
ington where  it  was 
placed  in  the  Smithson- 
ian Museum. 

These  are  some  of  the 
stories  told  about  Black- 
bird by  the  old  Indians 
and  early  white  men; 
told  around  the  camp- 
fires  in  the  long  cold 
winter  nights  or  in  the 
circle  of  story  tellers 
which  sits  on  hot  July  days  beneath  the  shade  of  a  great 
tree  in  the  Omaha  country.  Stories  told  in  this  way 
are  often  changed  in  the  telling.  We  cannot  say  how  far 
they  are  changed,  but  whether  much  or  little,  they  are  all  we 
are  ever  likely  to  know  of  the  life  of  the  first  noted  Nebraska 
Indian. 

Blackbird  Hill  stands  close  by  the  side  of  the  great  river 
to-day  as  it  did  a  hundred  years  ago.  Great  springs  gush 
from  the  sandstone  cliffs  at  its  base.  Upon  the  walls  of  these 
cliffs  are  deeply  cut  pictures  of  wild  animals  and  strange 
Indian  signs  mingled  with  the  names  of  early  explorers.  The 
mound  seen  by  Lewis  and  Clark  has  long  since  gone.  The 
spirit  of  Blackbird  looks  in  vain  to-day  for  the  boats  of  the 
fur  traders  beating  up  the  river.  But  the  living  eye  sees 
from  the  summit  a  most  wonderful  Nebraska  landscape, 
thirty  miles  of  river  shining  in  sunlight;  the  whole  range  of 
lesser  Blackbird  hills  buried  in  a  beauty  of  grass  and  flowers 
and  foliage;  great  fields  of  grain;  the  homes  of  a  hundred 
Omahas  living  in  the  land  of  their  forefathers  in  white  men 's 
houses,  and  far  below  in  the  valley  a  thin  thread  of  smoke 


BLACKBIRD  23 

where,  faster  than  elk  or  buffalo,  dashes  the  Omaha  evening 
mail  headed  for  the  city  of  the  Sioux. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Was  Blackbird  a  good  chief?     Why? 

2.  Why  was  the  smallpox  more  deadly  to  the  Indians  than  to  white  men? 

3.  Do  you  think  the  Omaha  Indians  obeyed  Blackbird's  dying  request? 

4.  Which  would  you  prefer,  the  landscape  Blackbird  saw  or  the  one  now 

seen  from  Blackbird  Hill?     Why? 


LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

i 

N  the  year  1803,  Nebraska  was  sold  by  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte, Emperor  of  France,  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  President 
of  the  United  States.  It  was  sold  as  part  of  the  great  coun- 
try between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains, 


I 


LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

all  of  which  was  then  called  Louisiana  and  owned  by  France. 
The  price  paid  was  $15,000,000,  which  was  about  three  cents 
an  acre. 

As  soon  as  the  United  States  had  bought  this  country, 
President  Jefferson  sent  Captain  Meriwether  Lewis  and 
Captain  William  Clark  with  forty-five  other  men  to  explore 
it.  They  were  to  go  up  the  Missouri  River  as  far  as  they 
could,  then  cross  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  reach  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  They  were  to  make  maps,  bring  back  reports  of  the 

24 


LEWIS  AND  CLARK  25 

land  and  make  friends  with  the  tribes  with  which  they  came 
in  contact.  It  was  a  wild  land  of  which  white  men  knew 
very  little.  Indians  and  wild  animals  had  their  homes  there. 
No  one  knew  the  way  across  the  mountains  to  the  Pacific. 

Lewis  and  Clark  started  from  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri 
on  May  14,  1804.  They  had  one  large  boat  with  a  sail  and 
twenty  oars,  and  two  smaller  boats  with  oars  only.  They 
had  powder,  lead,  tools  and  trinketsto  trade  with  the  Indians. 
They  had  two  horses  for  their  hunters  to  ride  in  order  to  help 
them  to  carry  the  game  which  they  killed  for  the  party. 

The  Lewis  and  Clark  party  made  about  twenty  miles  a 
day  up  the  Missouri  River.  Part  of  the  time  they  used  the 
sail  and  part  of  the  time  the  oars  and  a  great  part  of  the  time 
they  pulled  the  boats  with  long  ropes  which  the  men  held 
while  they  walked  along  the  shore.  It  was  two  months  be- 
fore they  reached  Nebraska,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nemaha 
River,  not  far  from  the  village  of  Rulo,  in  Richardson  County. 
Here  they  found  Indians,  wild  plums,  cherries  and  grapes. 

On  July  15th  they  were  at  the  mouth  of  the  little  Nemaha 
River  and  on  July  20th  they  were  at  the  mouth  of  the  Weep- 
ing Water  in  Cass  County,  where  they  killed  a  large  yellow 
wolf.  The  next  day  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Platte 
River  and  camped  a  little  way  above  it.  They  sent  out 
runners  to  the  village  of  the  Otoes  near  the  place  where  the 
Elkhorn  flows  into  the  Platte. 

After  resting  and  repairing  their  boats  they  went  on  past 
the  site  of  Omaha  and  on  July  30th  reached  a  high  bluff  near 
the  present  town  of  Fort  Calhoun  in  Washington  County. 
Here  they  camped.  The  hunters  brought  in  deer,  wild 
turkeys  and  geese.  Catfish  were  caught  in  the  river  and  the 
men  tamed  a  beaver.  Here  on  August  3d  they  held  the  first 
council  ever  held  by  the  United  States  with  the  Nebraska 
Indians.  Fourteen  Otoe  and  Missouri  Indians  came  to  the 
council.  The  principal  chiefs  were  Little  Thief,  Big  Horse 
and  White  Horse.  They  promised  to  keep  peace  with  the 
United  States  and  were  given  medals  and  presents  of  paint, 


26 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


powder  and  cloth.  They  gave  the  white  men  presents  of 
watermelons.  The  place  where  this  council  was  held  was 
named  Council-bluff  and  is  now  a  part  of  the  town  of  Fort 
Calhoun.  A  hundred  years  after  this  a  large  rock  was  placed 
on  the  schoolhouse  grounds  in  memory  of  this  first  council 
held  with  the  Indians  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 

On  August  llth  the  party  reached  Blackbird  Hill  in 
Thurston  County,  where  it  found  the  grave  of  the  great 


THE  LEWIS  AND  CLARK  MONUMENT  AT  FORT  CALHOUN,  NEBRASKA.     (From 
photograph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 

Omaha  chief  who  died  of  smallpox  about  four  years  before. 
On  August  16th  the  party  was  at  the  mouth  of  Omaha 
Creek  in  Dakota  County.  Here  the  men  made  a  net  of  wil- 
lows and  with  it  pulled  out  over  eleven  hundred  fish  from 
a  beaver  pond  in  the  creek. 

Sergeant  Charles  Floyd,  a  member  of  the  party,  died  on 
August  20th  and  was  buried  on  a  high  bluff  on  the  Iowa  side 
of  the  river  near  Sioux  City.  This  is  called  Floyd's  Bluff 


LEWIS  AND  CLARK  27 

to  this  day.  It  is  a  landmark  which  may  be  seen  for  many 
miles  across  the  Missouri  valley  in  Nebraska. 

On  the  28th  of  August  they  camped  at  Calumet  Bluff  in 
Cedar  County,  where  they  held  a  great  council  with  the 
Sioux  Indians  under  a  large  oak  tree.  First  the  pipe  of  peace 
was  smoked.  Then  Chief  Shake  Hand  said:  "I  see  before 
me  my  father's  two  sons.  You  see  me  and  the  rest  of  our 
chiefs.  We  are  very  poor.  We  have  no  powder  nor  ball  nor 
knives  and  our  women  and  children  at  the  village  have  no 
clothes.  I  went  formerly  to  the  English  and  they  gave  me 
a  medal  and  some  clothes.  When  I  went  to  the  Spanish 
they  gave  me  a  medal,  but  nothing  to  keep  it  from  my  skin ; 
but  now  you  give  me  a  medal  and  clothes.  Still  we  are  poor 
and  I  wish,  brothers,  you  would  give  us  something  for  our 
squaws."  Then  White  Crane  and  Struck-by-the-Pawnee 
spoke,  approving  what  the  old  chief  had  said,  and  asked  for 
some  of  the  great  father's  milk,  which  was  their  name  for 
whisky.  Presents  were  given  these  Sioux  and  peace  was 
made  between  them  and  the  United  States. 

On  September  4th  Lewis  and  Clark  camped  just  above  the 
mouth  of  the  Niobrara  River.  Here  for  the  first  time  they 
met  the  Ponca  Indians,  who  had  long  made  their  home  in  this 
part  of  Nebraska.  A  little  beyond,  they  saw  great  herds  of 
buffalo  and  also  elk,  deer  and  villages  of  prairie  dogs.  Soon 
after  they  crossed  the  Nebraska  line  into  South  Dakota. 

Two  years  later,  in  September,  1806,  Lewis  and  Clark 
came  back  from  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  Nebraska.  They  had 
suffered  great  hardships  on  the  journey.  Many  times  they 
had  nearly  lost  their  lives  from  hunger  and  thirst,  from  war- 
like Indians  and  wild  animals,  from  rocks  in  the  rivers  and 
from  pathless  woods  and  mountains.  But  they  had  lived 
through  them  all  and  carried  the  flag  of  the  United  States 
for  the  first  time  across  the  mountains  and  plains  to  the  great 
ocean  on  the  other  side.  And  now  they  came  back  with 
honor  and  glory  for  they  had  found  a  way  to  the  Pacific  Ocean 
and  they  had  written  the  story  of  their  travels  in  a  book 


28 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


which  they  kept  every  day,  telling  all  about  the  tribes  of 
Indians  they  had  seen  and  the  rivers  and  mountains  and  the 
land  they  had  crossed.  They  made  a  path  for  white  men 

into  the  great  West  and 
after  them  came  hunters, 
trappers,  traders  and  em- 
igrants until  the  West 
was  explored  and  settled. 
Captain  Clark  for 
many  years  lived  at  St. 
Louis  and  was  governor 
of  the  great  West  which 
he  explored.  He  was  tall, 
very  strongly  built,  with 
piercing  gray  eyes  and  red 
hair.  His  appearance  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  Indians, 
who  had  never  before  seen  a  red-haired  man.  The  Omaha 
Indians  to  this  day  call  St.  Louis  the  town  of  red-haired  men. 
Here  the  Indians  came  to  hold  councils  with  him.  Here  he 
met  the  traders,  trappers  and  early  emigrants,  and  here  he 
died  in  September,  1838,  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him. 

Captain  Lewis  lived  only  three  years  after  the  return  of 
the  expedition,  dying  in  Nashville,  Tennessee,  in  1809. 

The  names  of  Lewis  and  Clark  are  forever  linked  together 
in  the  history  of  the  West. 


THE  CLARK  MONUMENT  AT  ST.   Louis, 
(From  photograph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


QUESTIONS 

1.  With  what  tribes  of  Nebraska  Indians  did  Lewis  and  Clark  meet? 

2.  Show  on  the  map  the  location  of  each  place  mentioned  in  this  story. 

3.  Why  did  Chief  Shake  Hand  say  his  people  were  very  poor? 

4.  Which  did  more  for  Nebraska,  the  Mallet  Brothers  or  Lewis  and  Clark? 

5.  How  much  of  Nebraska  did  Lewis  and  Clark  explore? 

6.  What  do  the  pictures  of  these  two  men  tell  you  of  their  characters? 


HOW  THE  SPANISH  FLAG  CAME  DOWN 

ON  July  15,  1806,  Lieutenant  Zebulon  M.  Pike  with 
twenty-one  men  left  St.  Louis  on  an  expedition  to 
explore  the  plains  and  find  a  road  to  Santa  Fe.  After  a  long 
march  across  Missouri  and  Kansas  he  arrived,  September 
25th,  in  the  Republican  valley  near  the  border  of  Nebraska. 
Here  he  found  the  great  village  of  the  Pawnee  republic  num- 
bering nearly  two  thousand  people.  He  also  found  that  a 
party  of  three  hundred  Spanish  cavalry  from  Santa  Fe  had 
visited  the  village  three  or  four  weeks  before.  The  Spanish 
commander  had  given  the  Pawnees  presents,  had  promised 
to  open  a  road  for  trade  and  had  left  with  them  a  Spanish 
flag,  which  was  flying  from  a  pole  in  front  of  the  Pawnee 
chief 's  lodge. 

Lieutenant  Pike  held  a  grand  council  with  the  Pawnees 
on  September  29th,  and  told  them  that  they  must  haul  down 
the  Spanish  flag  and  in  its  place  raise  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  for 
their  land  no  longer  belonged  to  Spain  but  was  a  part  of  the 
United  States.  The  chiefs  were  silent,  for  the  Spaniards  had 
come  with  a  great  force  on  horseback  bringing  many  presents, 
while  the  American  lieutenant  had  only  twenty-one  men  on 
foot.  All  around  were  hundreds  of  Pawnee  warriors  ready 
for  battle.  The  young  American  lieutenant,  pointing  at  the 
Spanish  flag,  said  that  the  Pawnee  nation  could  not  have  two 
fathers,  they  must  either  be  the  children  of  the  Spanish  king 
or  acknowledge  their  American  father. 

After  a  long  silence  an  old  Indian  rose,  went  to  the  door 
of  the  lodge,  took  down  the  Spanish  flag,  brought  it  to  Lieu- 
tenant Pike  and  laid  it  at  his  feet.  He  then  took  the  Ameri- 
can flag  and  raised  it  on  the  staff  where  the  Spanish  flag  had 
floated. 

It  is  believed  by  some  that  the  place  where  this  took  place 

29 


30  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

is  about  eight  miles  southeast  of  Hardy,  Nebraska,  just 
across  the  Nebraska  line  in  Kansas.  Here  is  the  site  of  a 
large  Pawnee  village,  stretching  for  several  miles  along  the 
banks  of  the  Republican  River,  and  here  in  September,  1906, 
the  state  of  Kansas  raised  a  flag  and  erected  a  monument  to 
mark  the  spot  where,  one  hundred  years  before,  the  Spanish 
flag  came  down  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes  were  raised. 

There  are  others  who  believe  that  the  Spanish  flag  came 
down  in  what  is  now  Nebraska,  and  that  the  site  of  an 
ancient  Pawnee  village  some  miles  farther  up  the  Republican 
river  is  the  place  where  Lieutenant  Pike  and  his  little  com- 
pany of  soldiers  saw  the  American  flag  raised  over  the  Pawnee 
nation. 

Whether  the  spot  where  the  Spanish  flag  came  down  is  in 
Kansas  or  in  Nebraska  is  not  important.  The  Spanish  flag 
came  down  forever  and  in  its  place  rose  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 
This  brave  deed  of  the  young  lieutenant  and  his  men  deserves 
to  be  honored  in  history. 


QUESTIONS 

;ripes  become  the 

:  in  Lieutenant  Pi! 

3.    Why  might  not  the  Spanish  flag  continue  to  wave  over  the  Pawnee  village? 


1.  When  did  the  Stars  and  Stripes  become  the  flag  of  this  nation? 

2.  What  was  especially  brave  in  Lieutenant  Pike's  action  here? 


JOHN  COLTER'S  ESCAPE 


ATEBRASKA,  when  first  made  on  the  map,  included  all  the 
±*  country  from  the  present  Nebraska-Kansas  line  north 
to  Canada.  In  this  first  Nebraska  of  the  early  days,  in  the 
part  that  is  now  Montana,  there  occurred  the  remarkable 
escape  of  John  Colter. 

John  Colter  was  a  trapper  who  crossed  the  continent  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean  with  Lewis  and  Clark.  Oh  their  way  back, 
in  1806,  Colter  saw  so  many  signs  of  beaver  on  the  head- 
waters of  the  Missouri  that  he  got  leave  of  Captain  Lewis  to 
stay  there  and  trap.  This  was  in  the  heart  of  the  country 
of  the  terrible  Blackfoot  Indians.  Captain  Lewis  had  killed 
a  Blackfoot  warrior  who  was  trying  to  steal  horses  and  from 
that  time  the  tribe  hated  white  men  and  killed  them  without 
mercy. 

Colter  knew  all  this,  but  he  loved  to  trap  and  with  another 
hunter  named  Potts  he  plunged  into  the  wilds  of  the  best 
beaver  streams  of  the 
Blackfoot  hunting 
grounds.  The  two  men 
knew  the  great  risk  they 
ran  and  they  knew  also 
the  ways  of  the  Indians. 
They  set  their  traps  at 
night,  took  them  up 
early  in  the  morning, 
and  hid  during  the  day. 


BLACKFOOT   WARRIORS.     (From   Thwailes's 

"Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H. 

Clark  Co.,  Cleveland,  Ohio.) 


Early   one   morning 
they  were   softly  pad- 
dling up  a  small  creek 
in  their  canoe  to  take  in  some  traps  when  they  heard  a 
trampling  on  the  bank.     Colter  said,  "  Indians,"  and  wanted 

31 


32  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

to  go  back.  Potts  said,  "Buffalo,"  and  kept  on.  A  few 
more  strokes  of  the  paddle  and  they  were  surrounded  on 
both  shores  by  hundreds  of  Blackfoot  warriors  who  made 
signs  to  the  trappers  to  come  to  them.  Since  they  could  not 
escape  Colter  turned  the  canoe  toward  shore.  As  they  came 
to  land  an  Indian  seized  Potts'  rifle,  but  Colter,  who  was  a 
very  strong  man,  wrested  it  from  him  and  handed  it  to  Potts. 
The  latter  killed  an  Indian  with  it,  but  was  himself  shot  full 
of  arrows. 

The  Indians  now  took  Colter,  stripped  him,  and  began  to 
talk  about  how  they  would  kill  him.  At  first  they  were  go- 
ing to  put  him  up  as  a  mark  to  be  shot  at,  but  the  chief, 
desiring  to  have  greater  sport,  asked  Colter  if  he  could  run 
fast.  Colter  understood  enough  of  their  language  to  tell  him 
that  he  was  a  very  poor  runner,  although  he  was  one  of  the 
swiftest  runners  among  the  hunters.  Then  the  chief  took  him 
out  on  the  prairie  a  few  hundred  yards  and  turned  him  loose 
to  run  for  his  life.  The  Indians  gave  their  war-whoop  and 
started  after  him.  Colter  ran  straight  across  an  open  plain 
toward  the  Jefferson  River  six  miles  away.  The  plain  was 
covered  with  cactus,  and  at  every  jump  the  bare  feet  of  the 
naked  man  were  filled  with  cactus  thorns.  On  Colter  ran 
swifter  than  he  had  ever  before  run  in  his  life  with  those  hun- 
dreds of  Blackfoot  warriors  after  him.  He  ran  nearly  half 
way  across  the  plain  before  he  dared  to  look  back  over  his 
shoulder.  He  saw  that  he  had  far  outrun  all  the  Indians 
except  one  who  carried  a  spear  and  was  not  more  than  a  hun- 
dred yards  behind  him. 

A  faint  hope  now  rose  in  Colter 's  heart,  but  he  had  run  so 
hard  that  blood  gushed  from  his  nose  and  covered  his  body. 
He  ran  on  until  within  a  mile  of  the  river,  when  he  heard  the 
steps  of  the  Indian  with  the  spear  close  behind  him  and, 
turning  his  head,  saw  he  was  not  more  than  twenty  yards 
away.  Colter  stopped  suddenly,  turned  around  and  spread 
out  his  arms.  The  Indian,  surprised,  tried  to  stop  also,  but 
was  so  exhausted  that  he  fell  to  the  ground  and  broke  his 


JOHN  COLTER'S  ESCAPE  33 

spear.  Colter  at  once  picked  up  the  point  of  the  spear  and 
with  it  pinned  the  Indian  to  the  earth.  He  then  ran  on  while 
the  other  Indians  came  up  to  their  dead  comrade  and  yelled 
horribly  over  his  body.  Colter,  using  every  moment,  soon 
gained  the  shelter  of  the  trees  on  the  bank  and  plunged  into 
the  river. 

A  little  below  was  an  island,  at  the  upper  end  of  which 
was  a  great  raft  of  driftwood  in  the  water.  Colter  dived 
under  this  raft  and  after  some  trouble  got  his  head  above  the 
water  between  large  logs  which  screened  him  from  view.  He 
had  hardly  done  this  when  the  Indians  came  down  the  river 
bank  yelling  like  fiends.  They  hunted  the  shores,  walked 
out  on  the  raft  of  driftwood  over  Colter's  head,  pulling  the 
logs  and  peering  among  them  for  hours.  Once  Colter  thought 
they  were  about  to  set  the  raft  on  fire.  Not  until  after  dark, 
when  the  Indians  were  no  longer  heard,  did  Colter  dare  to 
venture  from  his  hiding  place.  He  swam  down  the  river  a 
long  distance,  then  came  out  on  the  bank.  He  was  alone  in 
the  wilderness,  naked,  without  a  weapon  and  with  his  feet 
torn  to  pieces  by  the  sharp  cactus  thorns.  He  was  hundreds 
of  miles  from  the  nearest  trading  post  on  the  Yellowstone, 
in  a  country  of  hostile  savages.  But  he  was  alive  and  fear- 
less and  strong. 

A  week  later  he  reached  the  trading  post,  sunburnt  and 
starving,  but  saved. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  knowledge  of  Indian  ways  did  John  Colter  show? 

2.  Describe  the  man  who  would  be  a  successful  trapper. 

3.  What  is  the  most  striking  incident  of  this  story? 


MANUEL  LISA 

MANUEL  LISA  was  the  founder  of  Old  Nebraska.     Old 
Nebraska  was  the  Nebraska  of  one  hundred  years 
ago.  It  was,  first  of  all,  a  narrow  strip  of  country  along  the 
Missouri  River  where  the  white  men  came  to  trade  with 
the  Indians  and  where  they  built  log  cabins  in  which  to  live 

and  store  their  goods.     Back 
of  this  narrow  strip  were  the 
great  plains    and    valleys   of 
Nebraska  with  herds  of  buf- 
falo, elk,  deer  and    antelope, 
whose  skins  the  Indians 
brought  in  from  their  summer 
and  winter  hunting  trips.     In 
the  streams   and   lakes  were 
plenty  of  beaver,   mink  and 
otter    and    their    pelts    were 
taken    by    the    Indians    and 
eagerly  bought  by  the  trader. 
All  the  traders  in  Old  Nebraska 
came  up  the  river  from  St. 
Louis  in  open  boats.     Some- 
times these  boats  were  canoes 
hollowed  out  of  a  great  tree 
and  sometimes  they  were  made 
out   of    plank.     These   boats 
had  oars  and  sometimes  a  mast  and  small  sail.     It  was 
easy  to  go  down  the  river  hi  them,   but   to    come    up 
against  the  swift  current  was  very  hard  and  slow.    Each 
boat  was  pulled  up  the  river  by  a  long  rope   called   a 
cordelle,  the  men  walking  along  the  bank  or  splashing  across 
the  sand  bars  and  shallows  with  the  rope  over  their  shoul- 

34 


MANUKL  LISA.     (Drawing  by  Miss 
Martha  Turner.) 


MANUEL   LISA  35 

ders.  It  took  them  fifty  days  to  drag  a  boat  from  St.  Louis 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Platte.  The  trip  down  was  made  in  ten 
days. 

The  men  who  pulled  these  boats  and  those  who  traded 
with  the  Nebraska  Indians  in  those  days  were  nearly  all 
Frenchmen,  but  the  greatest  leader  among  them  was  Manuel 
Lisa,  a  Spaniard.  He  was  born  in  New  Orleans,  came  to  St. 
Louis  when  a  very  young  man  and  at  once  began  trading 
with  Indians.  When  the  exploring  party  of  Lewis  and  Clark 
came  back  in  1806  from  its  two  years'  trip  to  the  Pacific  • 
Ocean  with  news  of  the  rich  fur  country  it  had  seen,  Manuel 
Lisa  was  the  first  man  to  act.  Early  in  1807  he  went  far  up 
the  Missouri  River  and  established  trading  posts.  The  next 
year  he  came  down  to  St.  Louis.  Every  year  for  the  next 
twelve  years  he  made  long  journeys  with  his  men  and  boats 
up  and  down  the  river.  He  carried  the  white  man 's  goods 
to  Indian  tribes  which  had  never  dealt  with  traders  before. 
He  made  friends  everywhere  and  gathered  great  cargoes  of 
fur  which  he  sent  down  to  St.  Louis  every  summer.  All  the 
hardships  and  dangers  of  the  frontier  were  nothing  to  him, 
helping  his  men  to  pull  the  boats,  sleeping  on  the  ground, 
going  without  food.  In  the  twelve  years  he  traveled  over 
twenty-five  thousand  miles  and  spent  three  solid  years  on  the 
Missouri  River.  In  all  Nebraska  and  far  up  the  river ' '  Man- 
uel" was  most  widely  known  as  the  great  white  man  and 
leader. 

Trouble  was  brewing  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain.  The  Hudson 's  Bay  Company  wished  to  get 
all  the  furs  from  the  Missouri  River.  It  sent  agents  from  its 
posts  to  all  the  tribes  on  the  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi 
stirring  them  up  to  attack  the  American  settlers  and  making 
them  presents  of  rifles  and  powder  and  lead.  Tecumseh,  the 
great  Indian  war  chief  of  the  west,  was  going  from  tribe  to 
tribe  urging  all  the  Indians  to  forget  their  quarrels  with  each 
other  and  before  it  was  too  late  to  join  in  driving  the  white 
men  from  the  country.  Most  of  the  tribes  on  the  Mississippi 


36  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

River  joined  the  league  of  Tecumseh  and  fought  with  the 
British  against  the  United  States.  The  tribes  beyond  the 
Missouri  were  four  tunes  as  numerous  as  those  on  the  Missis- 
sippi. If  they  had  joined  the  British  and  poured  their 
thousands  of  warriors  against  the  white  settlements  it  is 
likely  that  St.  Louis  would  have  been  taken  and  the  frontier 
driven  back  five  hundred  miles.  But  though  every  effort 


BRITISH  FLAG  ON  NEBRASKA  ROCKS,  1906.    (From  -photograph  by  A.  E. 

Sheldon.) 

was  made  to  have  them  do  so  the  Indians  beyond  the  Mis- 
souri remained  true  to  the  United  States.  On  the  cliffs  of 
Blackbird  Hill  deeply  cut  in  the  rock  is  a  British  flag.  It 
was  covered  with  moss  when  found  and  photographed  in 
1906.  It  was  probably  cut  there  a  hundred  years  ago  and 
may  have  marked  a  council  held  between  the  British  and  the 
Omaha  Indians,  whose  village  was  close  by.  It  is  the  only 
place  in  Nebraska  where  the  British  flag  is  displayed. 


MANUEL  LISA  37 

Manuel  Lisa  was  given  chief  credit  for  holding  the  Indians 
of  the  west  at  peace  with  our  country.  He  was  made  sub- 
agent  of  the  United  States  for  all  the  tribes  above  the  mouth 
of  the  Kansas  River.  He  built  Fort  Lisa  on  the  Missouri 
River  ten  miles  above  where  Omaha  now  stands.  Under  his 
care  all  the  great  tribes  of  the  plains,  the  Pawnee,  Sioux, 
Omaha,  Otoe,  Ponca,  Cheyenne,  Mandan,  Crow  and 
Arikara,  kept  faith  with  the  United  States.  Not  only  did 
they  remain  friends,  but  the  Nebraska  Indians  crossed  the 
Missouri  River  and  attacked  the  loways,  who  were  helping 
the  British.  Fort  Lisa  was  the  great  trading  post  for  all  the 
plains  region.  Its  influence  was  felt  as  far  away  as  the  moun- 
tains. When  the  war  ended  Lisa  had  made  a  league  of  forty 
chiefs  and  was  preparing  to  lead  them  the  next  year  against 
the  British  and  their  Indian  allies  on  the  upper  Mississippi. 

Manuel  Lisa  was  the  first  white  farmer  in  Nebraska.  He 
had  a  hundred  men  in  his  employ  and  around  each  of  his 
posts  he  had  a  small  farm  with  cabins  for  the  helpers.  He 
had  hundreds  of  horses,  cattle,  hogs  and  fowls.  He  brought 
to  Nebraska  the  seed  of  the  great  squash,  the  lima  bean,  the 
potato  and  the  turnip  and  gave  them  to  the  Indian  tribes. 
Ever  since  that  time  these  vegetables  have  been  grown  by 
the  Nebraska  Indians,  and  the  great  field  squash,  which  Lisa 
said  he  had  seen  weighing  160  pounds,  grown  from  the  seed 
he  brought  here,  has  always  been  a  favorite  in  the  Indian 
gardens. 

There  is  a  story  of  romance  and  sorrow  connected  with 
Lisa's  family.  When  he  first  came  to  Nebraska  he  had  a 
white  wife  in  St.  Louis.  After  a  while  he  married  an  Omaha 
Indian  girl,  telling  her  people  he  had  another  wife  down  the 
river.  Among  the  Indians  it  was  common  for  a  man  to  have 
more  than  one  wife  and  the  early  Indian  traders  very  often 
married  a  wife  in  each  tribe  where  they  traded  in  order  to 
make  friends  and  help  their  business.  While  Lisa  was  gone 
to  St.  Louis  a  daughter  was  born  to  him  in  Nebraska.  The 
Indian  mother  was  very  proud  of  her  little  girl,  and  when  the 


38  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

time  came  for  Lisa  to  return  she  took  her  baby  every  day 
down  to  the  river  and  watched  all  day  long  for  her  husband  ^s 
boat  in  order  to  be  the  first  to  meet  him  and  show  him  their 

child.  When  he  came  the  baby  was 
named  Rosalie.  The  next  year  a 
son  was  born  to  Lisa  and  his  Indian 
wife.  He  was  named  Raymond. 

When  Rosalie  was  two  years  old 
her  father  wished  to  take  her  with 
him  to  St.  Louis  to  be  brought  up 
and  to  go  to  school  among  the  white 
people.  The  mother  was  very  un- 
willing to  let  her  go  and  was  wild 
wfth  grief  when  the  boat  with  the 
little  girl  and  her  father  passed  out 

graph  collection  of  A.  E.    of  sight  down  the  river.     This  was 
in  the  summer  of  1817.     That  fall 

Lisa's  first  wife  died,  and  on  August  5, 1818,  he  was  married 
in  St.  Louis  to  Mary  Hempstead  Keeney.  She  was  a  charm- 
ing woman,  very  much  loved  by  all  who  knew  her.  At  this 
time  the  United  States  was  about  to  send  an  exploring  party 
with  soldiers  up  the  Missouri  on  the  first  steamboats  ever 
used  on  that  river.  The  soldiers  were  to  winter  in  Nebraska. 
When  Lisa  knew  this  he  planned  to  have  his  white  wife  go 
up  the  river  and  spend  the  winter  at  Fort  Lisa,  helping  to 
entertain  the  officers  and  making  friends  to  secure  trade,  for 
Lisa  was  always  thinking  of  more  trade.  She  did  so  and  was 
the  first  white  woman  to  come  into  Nebraska,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  Madam  Lajoie  in  1770. 

Lisa  sent  word  to  Fort  Lisa  to  have  his  Indian  wife  given 
presents  and  told  to  keep  away  from  the  fort  while  his  white 
wife  was  there.  Mitain,  as  the  Indian  wife  was  called,  did  so 
for  a  time,  but  at  last  came  in  with  her  little  boy  Raymond. 
During  Lisa's  long  stay  in  St.  Louis  the  Indian  mother 
was  working  one  day,  with  other  squaws,  in  a  garden  near 
the  fort.  The  Sioux  came  suddenly  upon  them.  The  other 


MANUEL  LISA 


39 


women  ran  at  once.  Little  Raymond  was  strapped  to  his 
cradle  board  resting  against  a  tree.  His  mother  rushed 
through  the  Sioux,  seized  her  baby  and  ran  for  the  fort.  The 
Sioux  were  close  upon  her  when  near  the  fort,  so  she  threw 
baby,  board  and  all,  over  the  wall,  receiving  a  wound  and 
risking  her  own  life  to  save  her  child.  When  Lisa  heard  her 
story  he  praised  the  mother,  petted  the  boy  and  gave  them 
both  presents,  telling  the  mother  to  go  back  to  her  people. 

The  next  year,  1820,  Lisa  prepared  to  go  down  the  river 
to  St.  Louis.  He  sent  for  Mitain  and  told  her  that  Raymond, 
who  was  then  four  years  old,  must  go  with  him  to  be  educated. 
The  mother  quickly  seized  her  boy,  ran  to  the  river,  sprang 
in  a  boat  and  rowed  to  the  other  side.  She  stayed  out  in  the 
woods  that  night.  In  the  morning  she  came  back  and  gave 
the  child  to  his  father,  saying  that  she  knew  it  was  better  for 
him  to  learn  the  white  man 's  way.  She  begged  Lisa  to  take 
her  with  him.  She  would  live  in  any  little  corner  that  he 
would  provide  for  her  and  make  no  trouble  if  only  she  might 
see  her  children  now  and  then.  Lisa  would  not  agree  to  this, 
but  offered  her  many  presents  if  she  would  return  to  her  tribe. 
The  poor  Indian  mother  broke  into 
tears,  saying  that  their  marriage 
was  for  life,  that  she  could  not  marry 
now  among  her  own  people  and  that 
Lisa  was  about  to  ruin  her  life  and 
break  her  heart  by  taking  both  her 
children  from  her.  Her  tears  and 
appeals  did  not  move  Lisa.  He  did 
not  seem  to  know  that  an  Indian 
mother  loves  her  children  even  as 
does  a  white  mother  and  that  no 
presents  can  pay  her  for  the  loss  of 
them.  He  prepared  to  take  Ray- 
mond, when  the  United  States  officers  interfered  and  made 
him  give  the  child  to  its  mother. 

Lisa  went  on  his  way  down  the  river  with  his  white  wife. 


ROSALIE  LISA  ELY.     (From 

photograph    collection    of 

A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


40  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

He  never  saw  Nebraska  again,  for  he  died,  August  12,  1820, 
at  St.  Louis.  He  is  buried  in  Bellefontaine  Cemetery  there, 
and  by  his  side  lies  his  wife  who  lived  nearly  fifty  years  after 
his  death.  She  was  a  friend  of  the  fur  traders  and  of  the 
Indians  all  her  life  and  was  called  by  everyone  "  Aunt  Man- 
uel." It  is  the  name  cut  on  her  tombstone. 

In  his  will  Lisa  left  money  for  the  education  of  his  two 
Indian  children  and  two  thousand  dollars  for- each  of  them 
when  they  should  be  of  age.  Raymond  died  while  yet  a 
young  man.  Rosalie  grew  to  womanhood,  and  was  well 
educated,  married  and  lived  happily  with  Mr.  Madison  Ely, 
a  white  man.  She  died  at  Trenton,  Illinois,  December  21, 
1904,  leaving  several  children  who  are  still  living. 

The  mother  of  Rosalie  and  Raymond  was  seen  at  Bellevue 
by  Prince  Maximilian  in  1833.  She  wore  a  deep  scar  where 
the  Sioux  struck  her  when  she  saved  the  life  of  her  boy.  Her 
story  was  told  to  all  the  travelers  who  came  up  the  river. 
When  she  died  and  where  she  is  buried  no  one  knows.  Some- 
where an  unmarked  mound  of  Nebraska  soil  holds  the  dust 
of  the  Nebraska  Indian  woman  who  proved  her  mother  love 
by  sacrifice  and  sorrow. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  products  were  shipped  from  Nebraska  in  Manuel  Lisa's  time? 

2.  What  good  things  did  Manuel  Lisa  do? 

3.  What  things  did  he  do  that  you  do  not  like? 

4.  What  kind  of  a  man  did  the  early  fur  trader  need  to  be? 

5.  What  do  you  think  of  the  first  known  white  woman  in  Nebraska  as  judged 

by  her  picture? 

6.  What  do  you  imagine  Rosalie  and  Raymond  did  for  a  good  time  in  those 

early  Nebraska  days? 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  ASTORIANS 

IN  the  last  week  of  March  of  the  year  1813  seven  men 
might  have  been  seen  leading  an  old  horse  down  the  val- 
ley of  the  North  Platte.  They  were  white  men  who  had 
come  all  the  way  from  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River  in 
Oregon  and  had  walked  all  the  way  from  the  Snake  River  in 
Idaho  where  the  Crow  Indians  had  robbed  them  of  their 
horses.  Their  one  poor  old  horse  they  had  got  from  the 
Snake  Indians,  trading  them  a  pistol,  a  knife  and  an  ax  for 
him. 

The  names  of  these  men  were  Robert  Stuart,  Ramsay 
Crooks,  Robert  McLellan,  Ben  Jones,  Andri  Vallee,  Francis 
LeClerc  and  Joseph  Miller.  Two  years  before,  on  March 
12,  1811,  they  had  left  St.  Louis  with  a  party  under  Wilson 
Price  Hunt  intending  to  cross  the  mountains  and  build  a  fort 
for  the  American  Fur  Company  in  Oregon.  On  their  way 
up  the  Missouri  River  the  Hunt  party  had  the  most  remark- 
able keel  boat  race  in  history.  This  was  with  Manuel  Lisa, 
who  left  St.  Louis  nineteen  days  later  and  wished  to  overtake 
them.  The  race  was  a  thousand  miles  long  and  lasted  sixty 
days.  It  was  won  by  Lisa  who  overtook  Hunt  before  he 
arrived  at  Fort  Pierre,  South  Dakota.  Here  Hunt  left  his 
boats,  traded  for  horses  with  the  Arikara  Indians  and  set  out 
to  find  a  shorter  way  to  Oregon  than  the  one  taken  by  Lewis 
and  Clark.  Their  new  route  took  them  over  very  rough 
country  in  the  Black  Hills  and  Big  Horn  mountains.  After 
great  losses  and  hardships  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  River,  where  they  built  a  fort  which  they  named 
Astoria,  after  John  Jacob  Astor,  of  New  York,  the  president 
of  the  fur  company. 

From  Astoria,  on  the  29th  of  June,  1812,  the  little  party  of 
seven  men  set  out  to  return  to  the  United  States  in  order  to 

41 


42  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

carry  word  to  Mr.  Astor  in  New  York.  All  the  summer  and 
fall  they  had  marched  across  the  deserts  and  mountains.  To 
avoid  the  fierce  Blackfoot  Indians  they  kept  to  the  south  of 
the  route  by  which  they  went  out.  By  so  doing  they  met  a 
party  of  Crows  who  stole  all  of  their  horses.  The  seven  men 
were  thus  left  afoot  in  a  wild  country  without  roads  and  more 
than  a  thousand  miles  from  any  white  settlement.  They 
burned  their  baggage  to  keep  the  Indians  from  getting  any  of 
it,  and  with  their  rifles  and  such  things  as  they  could  carry  on 
their  backs  began  their  long  tramp  toward  the  Missouri 
River.  One  of  their  number  became  sick  and  they  were 
obliged  to  carry  him  for  several  days  and  then  to  camp  and 
give  him  "Indian  sweat"  until  he  got  well. 

Soon  after  they  began  to  climb  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
game  became  so  scarce  that  they  nearly  starved.  They 
fished  in  a  mountain  stream  but  caught  no  fish.  For  three 
days  they  went  hungry.  One  of  them,  crazed  for  want  of 
food,  said  that  they  must  draw  lots  and  one  of  them  be  killed 
to  feed  the  rest.  The  others  took  away  his  gun,  and  the  next 
day  they  killed  an  old  buffalo,  which  saved  their  lives.  A 
few  days  later  they  found  a  camp  of  Snake  Indians  and 
traded  with  them  for  an  old  horse.  With  this  old  horse  to 
carry  their  things  they  kept  on  through  the  mountains 
until  they  found  a  way  to  the  eastern  slope,  not  far  from 
where  the  South  Pass  was  later  found.  They  were  the  first 
white  men  to  cross  the  mountains  at  this  point  and  find  their 
way  to  the  valley  eastward  which  afterward  became  the 
route  for  the  Oregon  and  California  trail.  On  October  26th 
they  reached  the  upper  waters  of  the  Platte  River.  They  did 
not  know  what  stream  it  was  or  where  it  would  lead  them, 
but  they  followed  it  until  the  2nd  of  November,  when  they 
made  a  winter  camp  where  there  was  timber  and  game,  and 
not  far  from  where  Casper,  Wyoming,  is  now.  .  In  three  days 
they  killed  forty-seven  buffalo.  They  built  a  log  cabin,  used 
the  buffalo  skins  to  cover  it,  dried  the  buffalo  meat  and  had 
made  themselves  comfortable  for  the  winter  when  a  band  of 


THE  RETURN   OF  THE  ASTORIANS 


43 


twenty-three  Arapahoes  on  the  warpath  against  the  Crows 
came  to  their  cabin  nearly  starved.  The  Astorians  fed  them 
all  night  with  dried  buffalo  meat.  The  next  day  as  soon  as 
the  Arapahoes  had  left  in  pursuit  of  the  Crows  the  Astorians 
packed  their  faithful  old  horse  with  what  he  could  carry  and 
hurried  away  from  their  snug  cabin  in  the  mountains,  leav- 
ing all  the  rest  to  the  Indians. 

It  was  the  13th  of  December  when  the  Astorians  left  their 
winter  quarters.  The  snow  was  two  feet  deep  in  the  moun- 
tains. Their  feet  became  sore  from  breaking  through  the 
hard  crust.  Their  old  horse  had  nothing  to  eat  but  willow 
twigs  and  cottonwood  bark,  but  they  struggled  on  for  four- 
teen days  in  which  time  they  made  about  330  miles.  The 
country  began  to  change.  The  mountains  gave  place  to  hills 
and  the  hills  to  plains.  There  was  no  wood  and  the  snow  lay 
deep  on  the  ground.  They  feared  they  would  freeze  to  death 
so  they  went  back  three  days' 
march  (about  seventy-seven 
miles)  and  on  December  30th 
made  camp  again  where  there  was 
wood  and  buffalo.  This  camp 
was  in  Nebraska  not  far  from 
where  Bridgeport  is  now.  Here 
they  stayed  until  March  and 
made  two  large  canoes  to  travel 
with  on  the  river,  but  the  North 
Platte  (for  it  was  that  stream)  was 
so  shallow  that  they  were  obliged 
to  leave  their  canoes  after  all  their 
hard  work  in  making  them  and 
start  again  on  foot  accompanied 
by  their  faithful  old  horse. 

So  it  was  that  on  March  20, 
1813,  they  left  their  last  camp 
and  journeyed  down  the  North  Platte  valley.     They  saw  a 
herd  of  sixty-five  wild  horses  and  longed  to  be  mounted  on 


MONUMENT  TO  THE  ASTORIANS  AT 
BELLEVUE,  NEBRASKA.  (From 
photograph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


44  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

them  as  they  galloped  away.  Day  after  day  they  marched 
along  leading  their  old  horse  with  his  burden.  On  either 
side  of  the  wide  North  Platte  valley  the  great  prairie  stretched 
away  covered  with  buffalo,  but  no  human  being  was  in 
sight.  They  passed  great  swamps  where  they  saw  thousands 
of  wild  swan,  geese  and  ducks.  They  were  probably  in  what 
is  now  Garden  County.  There  were  no  trees  and  they  made 
their  only  fires  with  dry  refuse  on  the  prairies.  In  the  early 
days  of  April  they  reached  a  great  island,  about  seventy 
miles  long,  in  the  Platte  River.  When  they  saw  this  island, 
now  called  Grand  Island,  they  were  for  the  first  time  sure 
that  they  were  in  the  Platte  River  valley,  for  hunters  had 
already  brought  word  of  this  island  in  the  Platte.  Three 
days  later  they  met  an  Otoe  Indian  who  took  them  to  his 
village.  Here  they  met  two  white  traders  from  St.  Louis  to 
whom  they  traded  their  old  horse  for  a  canoe,  and  on  the  18th 
of  April  they  floated  into  the  Missouri  River  and  down  to  St. 
Louis. 

To  these  seven  men  and  their  old  horse  belongs  the  honor 
of  first  exploring  the  North  Platte  valley  and  first  finding  a 
central  route  through  the  Rocky  Mountains.  They  were 
real  path-finders  of  the  great  West. 

QUESTIONS 

1 .  How  did  the  Astorian  party  find  its  way  across  the  deserts  and  mountains 

with  no  road  and  no  guide? 

2.  Where  did  the  wild  horses  come  from  which  they  saw  in  the  North  Platte 

valley? 

3.  What  part  of  Nebraska  did  this  party  explore? 


MAJOR  LONG'S  EXPEDITION 

IN  1819,  the  United  States  government  sent  an  expedition 
under  Major  Stephen  H.  Long  to  explore  the  Platte  River 
and  the  mountain  region  beyond.  This  expedition  is  famous 
because  it  brought  the  first  steamboat  to  the  Nebraska  shores 
and  placed  the  great  American  Desert  on  the  map.  The 
steamboat  was  named  the  Western  Engineer,  and  left 
Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  May  5,  1819,  for  the  long  journey 
down  the  Ohio,  then  up  the  Mississippi  to  St.  Louis,  and 
thence  up  the  Missouri  River  to  the  old  Council  Bluff  of  Lewis 
and  Clark.  The  Western  Engineer  was  well  calculated  to 
strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the  western  Indians  who  had 
never  seen  a  steamboat.  The  bow  of  the  boat  rose  in  the 
form  of  a  huge,  black,  scaly  serpent  with  open  mouth,  from 
which  poured  smoke  and  steam  when  the  boat  was  under 
way.  The  Indians  who  saw  this  boat  said, ' '  White  man,  bad 
man,  keep  Great  Spirit  chained,  build  fire  under  him  to  make 
him  paddle  the  boat." 

This  serpent  steamboat  arrived  at  Fort  Lisa,  ten  miles 
above  the  present  site  of  Omaha,  on  September  17th.  The 
party  under  Major  Long  at  once  began  to  prepare  cabins  for 
winter  quarters.  The  spot  they  chose,  with  plenty  of  wood 
and  stone  near  at  hand  for  building  and  for  fuel,  may  still  be 
found  between  the  high  bluff  and  the  Missouri  River. 

There  were  twenty  people  in  Major  Long's  party,  some 
of  them  engineers,  some  scientists  in  botany,  geology  and 
zoology,  and  one  artist.  The  fall  and  winter  were  spent  in 
study  of  the  animals,  plants  and  rocks,  in  holding  councils 
with  the  Indians,  learning  their  language  and  customs,  and 
in  keeping  record  of  the  weather. 

There  were  many  meetings  with  the  Indians,  and  many 
very  interesting  speeches  made.  On  October  4th  one  hun- 

45 


46 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


dred  Otoes,  seventy  Missourias  and  sixty  loways  gave  a 
dance.  On  October  9th  seventy  Pawnees  did  the  same.  On 
October  14th  four  hundred  Omahas  assembled  and  a  great 
speech  was  made  by  their  chief,  Big  Elk,  who  said,  among 
other  things : 

"Here  I  am,  my  Father;  all  these  young  people  you  see 
around  here  are  yours;  although  they  are  poor  and  little,  yet 
they  are  your  children.  All  my  nation  loves  the  whites  and 
always  have  loved  them.  Some  think,  my  Father,  that  you 


COUNCIL  WITH   OTOES  BY  MAJOR  LONG'S  EXPEDITION.     (From  Thwaites's 
"Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co.,  Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

have  brought  all  these  soldiers  here  to  take  our  land  from  us 
but  I  do  not  believe  it.  For  although  I  am  a  poor  simple 
Indian,  I  know  that  this  land  will  not  suit  your  farmers.  If 
I  even  thought  your  hearts  bad  enough  to  take  this  land,  I 
would  not  fear  it,  as  I  know  there  is  not  wood  enough  on  it 
for  the  use  of  the  whites." 

White  Cow,  another  Omaha  chief,  said:  "Look  at  me, 
my  Father,  look  at  my  hands.  I  am  a  wild  man  born  on  the 
prairie.  Look  at  me  and  see  if  there  is  any  blood  of  your 
people  upon  me.  Some  whose  hands  are  red  with  blood,  try 
to  wash  it  off,  but  it  still  remains." 

In  the  council  with  the  Pawnees,  speeches  were  made  by 


47 

Long  Hair,  Knife  Chief,  Fool-Robes-Son,  Petalesharu.  This 
last  one  was  father  of  the  famous  chief  of  the  same  name. 
He  spoke  thus:  " Father,  I  am  not  afraid  of  these  people, 
these  Pawnees  you  see  here.  I  have  seen  people  travel  in 
blood,  I  have  traveled  in  blood  myself,  but  it  was  the  blood 
of  redskins,  no  others.  Father  I  have  no  longer  a  desire  for 
war,  I  desire  to  eat  in  peace.  I  am  glad  to  see  you  write 
down  all  that  has  been  said.  When  a  man  dies  his  actions 
are  forgotten;  but  when  they  are  written  down  it  is  not  so. 
When  I  have  seen  a  person  poor  and  I  had  a  horse  to  spare, 
or  a  blanket,  I  have  given  it  to  them.  From  this  time  I 
undergo  a  change.  I  am  now  an  American  and  you  shall 
hear  that  this  is  true." 

On  June  6,  1820,  Major  Long  with  twenty-one  men 
mounted  on  horses  left  the  winter  quarters  on  the  banks  of 
the  Missouri  for  the  head  of  the  Platte  River.  They  followed 
the  Indian  trail  across  the  prairie  to  Papillion  Creek,  where 
they  made  their  first  camp.  Keeping  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Platte,  the  party  crossed  the  Elkhorn  River,  Shell  Creek, 
and  Beaver  Creek,  arriving  on  June  llth  at  the  Pawnee 
villages  on  the  Loup. 

The  villages  stretched  along  the  Loup  for  a  distance  of 
ten  miles  and  held  about  six  thousand  Pawnees.  Eight 
thousand  Indian  ponies  fed  on  the  grass  of  the  Loup  valley 
about  the  villages.  The  Pawnees  tried  to  persuade  Major 
Long  to  go  no  farther,  telling  him  that  the  fierce  tribes  of  the 
upper  Platte  would  eat  up  his  little  band.  Major  Long  se- 
cured as  guides  two  French  trappers  who  were  living  with 
the  Pawnees,  and  pushed  on. 

June  21st  the  Long  expedition  arrived  at  the  junction  of 
the  North  Platte  and  South  Platte.  Crossing  both  streams 
the  party  continued  for  several  days  up  the  south  bank  of  the 
South  Platte,  making  its  last  stop  in  what  is  now  Nebraska 
on  the  26th  of  June  near  the  corner  of  Deuel  and  Keith 
counties.  The  expedition  marched  to  where  the  South 
Platte  issues  from  its  canyon  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  then 


48 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


turned  south  and  returned  to  the  Mississippi  River  by  way 
of  the  Arkansas. 

There  were  two  principal  results  from  Major  Long's 
expedition.  The  first  was  a  very  accurate  description  of 
Indian  customs  and  Indian  life  as  they  existed  among  the 


MAP  OF  THK  GREAT  AMERICAN  DESERT  AS  MADE  BY  MAJOR  LONG,  1820. 
(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

Omahas,  Otoes,  and  Pawnees  a  hundred  years  ago.  This 
series  of  stories  of  Indian  life  covers  several  hundred  pages  of 
his  report.  They  were  obtained  through  Indian  traders  and 
interpreters  who  had  spent  their  lives  with  these  tribes,  and 
are  to-day  one  of  the  best  sources  of  information  upon  them. 
The  other  result  of  Major  Long's  expedition  was  that  all 
the  country  west  of  the  Missouri  River  got  a  bad  name,  which 
stuck  to  it  for  fifty  years.  Upon  the  map  prepared  for  Ma- 
jor Long  appears  the  words  "Great  Desert"  stretching  from 
the  Platte  valley  to  the  Red  River  in  Texas.  In  his  report 


MAJOR  LONG'S  EXPEDITION  49 

upon  the  country,  Major  Long  said:  "It  is  almost  wholly 
unfit  for  cultivation  and  of  course  uninhabitable  for  people 
depending  upon  agriculture  for  their  subsistence." 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Was  Big  Elk's  reasoning  correct  in  regard  to  the  white  men  and  the  Indian 

land? 

2.  What  dp  you  think  of  Petalesharu's  character  from  his  speech? 

3.  What  did  Major  Long's  expedition  do  for  Nebraska? 


OLD  FORT  ATKINSON 

ON  the  site  of  the  Council  Bluff  where  Lewis  and  Clark 
first  held  council  with  the  Indians,  once  stood  Old  Fort 
Atkinson,  built  in  the  year  1819,  the  first  United  States  fort 
in  Nebraska.  The  Rifle  regiment  and  the  Sixth  Infantry 
were  here.  It  was  a  large,  strong  fort  with  fifteen  cannon 
and  several  hundred  soldiers.  Besides  the  soldiers  there 
were  teamsters,  laborers,  traders,  hunters,  trappers  and 


PLAN  OF  FORT  ATKINSON,  NEBRASKA,  1819-1827.     (Drawing  by  Miss 
Martha  Turner.) 

Indians,  making  a  town  of  nearly  a  thousand  people.  They 
had  a  brick  yard  and  a  lime  kiln.  Rock  was  quarried  from 
the  ledges  along  the  river.  A  saw  mill  and  a  grist  mill  were 
kept  busy.  Hundreds  of  acres  of  rich  Nebraska  land  were 
farmed  and  thousands  of  bushels  of  grain  raised.  Roads 
ran  in  all  directions  from  this  fort  on  the  Council  Bluff. 
Indians  came  to  it  from  all  parts  of  the  West  for  it  was  the 
most  western  army  post  in  the  United  States.  From  far-off 

50 


OLD   FORT  ATKINSON  51 

Santa  Fe  Mexicans  came  here  to  meet  the  Pawnee  Indians 
and  make  peace  with  them.  White  women  were  here. 
There  were  marriages  and  births.  Children  played  about 
the  bluff  and  probably  the  first  school  in  Nebraska  was 
taught  here.  Fort  Atkinson  was  the  largest  town  of  early 
Nebraska  and  the  only  town  in  Nebraska  at  that  time. 

To  this  fort  in  the  summer  of  1823  came  the  news  that  a 
party  of  American  trappers  had  been  fired  upon  by  the 
Arikara  Indians  and  about  twenty  of  them  killed.  The 
Arikaras  were  related  to  the  Pawnees.  They  lived  on  the 
Missouri  river,  in  what  is  now  South  Dakota,  five  hundred 
miles  above  Fort  Atkinson.  They  were  different  from  the 
wild  Indians  on  the  plains  for  they  lived  in  villages  sur- 
rounded with  walls  of  dirt  and  fenced  with  timbers  set  on 
end  in  the  ground.  An  Arikara  had  stolen  horses  from  the 
trappers.  He  was  horsewhipped  by  them.  This  led  to  the 
attack  on  the  trappers. 

There  were  very  busy  times  in  the  old  fort  on  the  Council 
Bluff  when  the  news  came.  The  bugles  rang  out  calling  the 
soldiers  to  their  colors.  Cannon  and  powder  and  shot  were 
loaded  into  keel  boats.  The  hunters  and  trappers  at  the  fort 
seized  their  rifles.  General  Leavenworth  started  with  over 
two  hundred  soldiers.  He  was  joined  by  four  hundred 
Sioux  warriors,  who  were  enemies  of  the  Arikaras,  and  by 
several  parties  of  hunters  and  rivermen.  It  was  a  month's 
march  along  the  shores  of  the  Missouri  to  reach  the  Arikara 
villages.  The  keel  boats  with  the  cannon,  powder  and  food 
were  pulled  up  the  river  with  ropes.  Never  before  had  such 
an  army  been  seen  on  the  North  Nebraska  prairies.  On 
August  8th  they  arrived  at  the  Arikara  villages.  The  can- 
non were  placed  on  a  hill  and  their  heavy  balls  fired  into  the 
village  while  the  Sioux  under  their  chief  White  Bear  fought 
with  the  Arikara  warriors  outside  the  walls.  Gray  Eyes, 
chief  of  the  Arikaras,  and  about  forty  of  his  people  were 
killed.  The  tribe  sued  for  peace  and  a  treaty  was  made 
while  the  white  soldiers  and  the  Sioux  feasted  on  roasting 


52  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

ears  from  the  Arikara  cornfields.  No  white  soldiers  were 
killed  and  the  army  returned  to  Fort  Atkinson.  This  is 
called  the  Arikara  war  of  1823  and  is  the  first  war  on  the 
Nebraska  frontier. 

There  was  quiet  for  a  long  time  at  Fort  Atkinson.  We 
know  that  in  the  summer  the  fur  traders  came  up  the  river 
and  keel  boats  from  St.  Louis  brought  stores  and  news  from 
the  world  below.  In  the  winter  sleds  traveled  across  the 
snow  to  other  posts.  Hunting  parties  from  the  fort  went  out 
to  kill  game  for  the  soldiers.  So  many  elk  and  deer  were 
killed  in  this  way  that  the  Omaha  tribe  could  find  no  food 
on  their  old  hunting  grounds.  Big  Elk,  chief  of  the  tribe, 
came  to  the  fort  for  help,  saying  that  his  people  were  starving 
while  the  soldiers  killed  and  drove  away  the  game. 

In  1827  Fort  Atkinson  was  abandoned  by  the  United 
States.  All  the  soldiers  were  sent  down  the  Missouri  River. 
They  drove  away  a  great  herd  of  cattle  which  supplied  them 
with  beef.  They  left  the  plowed  fields  to  grow  up  with 
grass  and  weeds.  All  that  was  of  use  and  could  be  carried 
was  taken  away.  The  buildings  were  left.  The  traders  and 
hunters  went  to  Bellevue  and  other  posts  down  the  river. 
It  was  said  that  the  Indians  burned  the  buildings  after  the 
soldiers  were  gone. 

Six  years  later  Maximilian,  the  great  German  traveler, 
found  the  fort  in  ruins.  The  great  stone  chimneys  were 
standing  and  a  brick  storehouse  was  still  under  roof.  Rat- 
tlesnakes made  the  place  their  home. 

When  the  early  settlers  came  to  this  part  of  Nebraska  in 
1854  and  1855,  they  were  glad  to  find  that  the  United  States 
had  provided  them  with  such  a  supply  of  brick  and  stone 
ready  to  use  for  their  chimneys  and  cellars.  They  tore  down 
the  ruins  and  carried  them  away  to  their  farms. 

To-day  the  little  village  of  Fort  Calhoun,  sixteen  miles 
north  of  Omaha,  adjoins  the  site  of  Old  Fort  Atkinson.  On 
the  summit  of  the  Council  Bluff  may  still  be  traced  the 
parade  ground,  the  place  where  the  flagstaff  stood,  the  rows 


OLD   FORT  ATKINSON 


53 


of  cellars  where  once  were  the  officers'  quarters  and  the  bar- 
racks where  the  soldiers  lived.  The  ashes  and  broken  brick 
where  the  great  fireplaces  were  may  still  be  found,  as  also  the 
powder  vault  and  the 
road  running  down 
Hook's  Hollow  to  the 
boat  landing  on  the  river. 
Every  spring  when 
the  people  make  gardens 
they  plow  up  bullets  and 
buttons  with  the  name 
"Rifles"  or  the  figure 
"6" 'for  the  Sixth  In- 

F      ,  fi  p    11      FLINT  LOCK  AND  CANNON  BALL  FROM  FOKT 

iry,  O  m.      IjOI  ATKINSON.     (From  photograph  collection 

and  silver  coins  are  also  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 

found.  Most  of  them  are  Spanish  coins  with  far  away  dates 
upon  them,  telling  of  the  time  when  Spain  ruled  the  greater 
part  of  America  and  her  coins  were  in  commerce  everywhere. 
Such  is  the  story  of  the  Council  Bluff  and  Old  Fort  Atkin- 
son, the  scene  of  the  first  council  with  Nebraska  Indians,  the 

site  of  the  first  fort, 
and  the  first  impor- 
tant town  in  the 
state.  It  was  the 
center  of  busy  life 
one  hundred  years 
ago.  To-day  the 
Missouri  River  is 
three  miles  away 
from  the  old  landing 

A  FORT  ATKINSON  GRAVESTONE      (From  pho-      beneath     the     bluff. 
tograph  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.)  mt  .       r  i 

The    fort    and    its 

soldiers  are  gone.  The  Indian  trader  and  hunter  come  no 
more.  The  Mexican  no  longer  crosses  the  plains  to  make 
peace  with  the  Pawnee.  The  very  name  of  the  old  fort  is 
forgotten.  Yet  here  is  one  of  the  historic  spots  of  early 


54  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

Nebraska  whose  memories  should  be  cherished  and  whose 
story  deserves  to  be  told. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  did  not  white  settlers  come  into  Nebraska  and  farm  as  soon  as 

the  soldiers  at  Fort  Atkinson  found  that  fine  crops  could  be  grown  on 
its  rich  land? 

2.  Why  should  the  Omaha  Indians  be  in  danger  of  starving  in  such  a  rich 

land  as  Nebraska? 

3.  What  does  Fort  Atkinson  stand  for  in  the  "first  things"  of  Nebraska? 

4.  What  should  be  done  with  the  site  of  old  Fort  Atkinson? 


BELLEVUE 

NO  one  living  knows  just  when  the  first  white  men  settled 
at  Bellevue.  The  story  has  many  times  been  told  how 
Manuel  Lisa  climbed  the  sloping  hills  from  the  riverside 
where  his  boat  lay  moored  and  as  his  eye  swept  that  wonder- 
ful panorama  of  forest,  hill  and  river  he  exclaimed  in  French, 
"Bellevue;"  that  he  then  staked  out  his  fur  trader's  cabin 
in  the  valley  below  and  thus  began  the  first  white  settlement 
in  our  state.  This  was  in  the  year  1810,  so  the  story  goes. 
Manuel  Lisa  himself  left  no  writing  to  prove  it  and  we  know 
that  Fort  Lisa,  his  chief  fur  trading  post,  was  twenty  miles 
farther  up  the  Missouri  River.  The  old  fur  traders  died  long 
ago  and  the  trees  and  hills  about  Bellevue  which  looked  down 
upon  their  boats  in  the  river  tell  no  tales  of  these  early 
"voyageurs."  The  Astorians  who  passed  up  the  river  in 
1811  made  no  mention  of  the  trading  post  of  Bellevue  and 
the  soldiers  who  built  Fort  Atkinson  in  1819  on  the  Council 
Bluff  twenty-five  miles  above  are  equally  silent  in  regard 
to  it. 

The  fur  trading  records  first  tell  of  Bellevue  in  1823. 
There  was  then  a  fur  trading  post  and  an  Indian  agency, 
called  the  Council  Bluffs  Indian  Agency,  at  Bellevue.  The 
Omahas,  Otoes  and  Pawnees  came  there  to  trade.  It  was 
easier  for  the  fur  traders  and  Indians  to  meet  at  Bellevue  than 
at  any  other  post  on  the  river.  The  smooth  valley  of  the 
Platte  made  a  natural  pathway ;  the  rock  foundation  of  the 
hills  sloping  to  the  riverside  made  a  natural  landing  place  for 
boats ;  wood  and  water  were  at  hand ;  and  the  beautiful  view 
down  the  valley  where  the  Platte  and  Missouri  mingle  their 
waters  among  forested  islands  added  to  the  other  attractions. 
When  the  soldiers  abandoned  Fort  Atkinson  in  1827  and 
marched  away,  Bellevue  became  the  chief  post  and  the  oldest 

55 


56 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


town  in  fact  as  well  as  in  story  of  the  Nebraska  country. 
The  first  of  these  honors  she  retained  through  all  the  fur 
trading  years  and  the  second  remains  hers  to-day. 

Bellevue  was  the  stopping  place  of  the  early  adventurers, 
trappers,  travelers,  missionaries  and  soldiers  who  came  to 
this  region.  The  early  names  in  our  annals  cluster  about 
Bellevue.  Peter  A.  Sarpy,  Henry  Fontenelle,  Prince  Maxi- 
milian, George  Catlin,  John  C.  Fremont,  Professor  Hayden, 
J.  Sterling  Morton,  Brigham  Young,  each  halted  at  this 


BELLEVUE  IN  1833.     (From  Thwailes's  "Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H. 
Clark  Co.,  Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

hospitable  lodge  in  the  wilderness.  The  Indians  of  the 
Platte  valley  brought  hither  their  furs.  Missionaries  made 
here  their  first  attempt  to  civilize  and  Christianize  Nebraska. 
When  steamboats  began  to  make  regular  trips  up  the 
Missouri,  Bellevue  was  one  of  the  principal  landing  places. 
In  1846  the  Presbyterian  Church  fixed  on  Bellevue  as  the 
site  of  its  principal  mission  to  the  western  Indians  and  in 


BELLEVUE 


57 


1848  the  old  mission  building  standing  to-day  was  built. 
Here  came  the  first  governor  to  the  Nebraska  territory  in 
1854  and  here  the  first  newspaper,  the  Nebraska  Palladium, 
was  printed.  All  the  signs  then  pointed  to  Bellevue  as  a 
future  great  metropolis  of  the  Platte  valley. 

Then  came  disaster  after  disaster  to  Bellevue 's  fond  hopes 


BELLEVUE  WOODS  AS  SEEN  TO-DAY.  TOP  OF  CHILD'S  POINT,  LOOKING  EAST. 
(From  photo  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 

and  aspirations.  The  capital  was  located  at  Omaha.  The 
Pacific  Railroad  left  a  natural  crossing  at  Bellevue  and  a 
natural  roadway  up  the  valley  of  the  Platte  to  find  a  more 
difficult  crossing  and  longer  route  through  Omaha.  Sarpy 
county  was  created  with  Bellevue  as  the  county  seat,  but 
even  this  distinction  was  carried  off  by  the  new  town  of 
Papillion  in  1875. 


58  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

Bellevue  still  stands  by  the  riverside,  the  oldest  town  in 
Nebraska.  Her  early  ambitions  have  been  blighted  but  a 
wonderful  compensation  for  their  loss  is  hers.  Hers  is  still 
the  most  beautiful  site  upon  the  river.  No  noise  of  factories 
or  warehouses,  no  crowding  of  jealous  poverty  and  sordid 
wealth  within  her  borders,  no  ugly  skyscrapers  blot  out  her 
landscape.  No  clamor  and  rivalry  of  the  market  place  dis- 
turb her  visions.  She  is  still  Old  Bellevue,  with  all  the  glory 
and  romance  and  early  dreams  of  old  Nebraska  gathered 
within  her  borders.  She  is  now  and  forever  will  remain  the 
center  of  interest  for  all  those  who  love  the  story  of  Nebras- 
ka 's  early  days,  and  the  keeper  of  Nebraska 's  earliest  mem- 
ories and  traditions  for  all  time. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  What  reasons  can  you  give  why  Bellevue  did  not  become  the  largest 

city  in  Nebraska? 

2.  What  reasons  for  believing  that  Bellevue  was  not  founded  in  1810? 

3.  In  what  sense  is  Bellevue  Nebraska's  oldest  town? 

4.  What  has  determined  the  location  of  Nebraska  towns  and  cities,  judging 

from  those  you  know? 

5.  Of  what  use  to  the  state  are  historic  places  and  old  towns? 


GEORGE  CATLIN 

GEORGE  CATLIN  was  the  first  painter  of  Nebraska 
scenery  and  Nebraska  Indians.  Before  him  Thomas 
Seymour,  one  of  the  members  of  Major  Long's  expedition, 
made  a  few  sketches,  but  the  real  first  honors  belong  to 
Catlin.  He  was  born  in  Pennsylvania  in  1796,  educated  to 
be  a  lawyer,  but  became  a  portrait  painter  instead.  A  dele- 
gation of  Indians  from  the  far  West  came  to  Philadelphia 
where  he  had  his  art  studio.  He  resolved  to  become  the 
painter  of  Indians  and  Indian  life.  He  forsook  the  studio, 
came  to  St.  Louis  and  took  passage  on  the  steamer  Yellow- 
stone on  her  first  voyage  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Missouri 
River.  This  was  in  the  year  1832.  He  stayed  that  winter 
with  the  Mandan  Indians  and  came  down  the  Missouri  the 
next  year,  visiting  all  the  tribes  and  painting  pictures  at 
every  stopping  place. 

Along  Nebraska  shores  Catlin  painted  pictures  of  Black- 
bird Hill,  of  Bellevue,  of  the  junction  of  the  Platte  and 
Missouri  rivers,  of  prairie  fires,  buffalo  hunting,  Indian 
weapons,  games,  customs  and  portraits  of  prominent  Indians. 
There  were  no  cameras  in  those  days  and  Catlin 's  oil  paint- 
ings make  our  first  picture  gallery. 

Catlin  saw  the  fertility  as  well  as  the  beauty  of  Nebraska. 
This  description  written  by  him  of  the  country  near  Black- 
bird Hill  is  true  to-day  as  it  was  then: 

"  There  is  no  more  beautiful  prairie  country  in  the  world 
than  that  which  is  to  be  seen  here.  In  looking  back  from 
this  bluff  toward  the  west  there  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
scenes  imaginable.  The  surface  of  the  country  is  gracefully 
and  slightly  undulating,  like  the  swells  of  the  ocean  after  a 
heavy  storm,  and  everywhere  covered  with  a  beautiful  green 
turf  and  with  occasional  patches  and  clusters  of  trees.  The 

59 


60 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


soil  in  this  region  is  also  rich  and  capable  of  making  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  and  productive  countries  in  the  world. 
From  this  enchanting  spot  there  is  nothing  to  arrest  the  eye 
from  ranging  over  the  waters  of  the  Missouri  for  the  distance 
of  twenty  or  thirty  miles,  where  it  quietly  glides  between^its 
barriers  formed  of  thousands  of  green  and  gracefully  sloping 


THE  STEAMEK  YELLOWSTONE.     (From  Thwaites's  ''Early  Western  Travels." 
Arthur  H,  Clark  Co.,  Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

hills,  with  its  rich  alluvial  meadows  and  woodlands  —  and 
its  hundred  islands  covered  with  stately  cottonwood." 

Catlin  was  the  first  white  man  to  visit  and  describe  the 
great  Red  Pipestone  quarry  on  the  border  of  South  Dakota 
and  Minnesota  from  which  come  the  smoking  pipes  used  by 
Indians  far  and  near.  In  his  honor  this  rock  is  called  cat- 
linite.  As  related  elsewhere,  Catlin  carried  away  from  Ne- 
braska the  skull  from  the  burial  mound  of  the  Omaha  chief 
Blackbird. 


GEORGE .  CATLIN  61 

In  1840  Catlin  visited  Europe  with  a  company  of  Ameri- 
can Indians  and  gave  entertainments  in  the  principal  coun- 
tries. In  1857  he  published  his  book  on  North  American 
Indians  with  over  400  illustrations  made  from  his  oil  paint- 
ings. He  died  in  New  Jersey  in  1872,  having  visited  forty- 
eight  Indian  tribes  and  made  over  five  hundred  paintings 
among  them.  These  paintings  are  now  in  the  National 
Museum  at  Washington,  forming  what  is  known  as  "Catlin 's 
North  American  Indian  Gallery." 

QUESTIONS 

1.  In  what  respects  was  Catlin's  work  different  from  that  of  the  other  early 

explorers? 

2.  Wherein  is  his  work  of  special  interest  and  value? 

3.  What  other  artists  have  made  pictures  and  statues  of  the  American  Indian? 

4.  Why  has  the  Indian  been  so  interesting  to  writers  and  artists? 


PRINCE  MAXIMILIAN 

PRINCE  MAXIMILIAN  was  born  in  Germany  in  1782. 
His  full  title  was  Maximilian,  Prince  von  Wied.  He 
was  born  with  a  fortune  as  well  as  a  noble  title  and  might 
have  wasted  his  life  in  idleness  and  luxury  like  many  other 
princes.  But  Prince  Maximilian  from  childhood  loved 
study.  More  than  anything  else  he  loved  the  study  of 
nature.  The  new  world  across  the  ocean,  with  its  unex- 
plored wilderness,  drew  him  to  its  wilds.  He  spent  two 
years  in  the  forests  of  Brazil  and  wrote  several  volumes  upon 
that  then  unknown  region. 

In  1833,  Prince  Maximilian  made  his  famous  journey  up 
the  Missouri  River  on  the  second  voyage  of  the  steamer  Yel- 
lowstone. With  him  were  skilled  artists  and  scientists  from 
Europe  who  gathered  specimens  and  painted  pictures  of  the 
country  through  which  they  traveled.  The  next  year 
Prince  Maximilian  returned  to  Europe  and  four  years  later 
published  at  Coblentz,  Germany,  a  story  of  his  travels  in 
North  America  in  three  volumes,  one  of  which  is  an  art 
portfolio  filled  with  sketches  and  pictures  of  western  life. 

Nebraska  owes  a  great  deal  to  Prince  Maximilian.  He 
made  our  country  and  its  people  known  in  Europe.  Of  all 
the  writers  on  early  Nebraska  he  seems  the  most  charming. 
He  had  the  trained  eye  of  the  German  scientist  and  the 
imagination  of  a  poet.  Reading  his  stories  and  looking  at 
his  pictures  the  Nebraska  of  1833  rises  before  us.  The 
steamer  Yellowstone  comes  again  from  St.  Louis,  beating  its 
way  up  the  Missouri  River  against  the  swift  yellow  current 
in  late  April  and  early  May.  The  leaf  buds  break,  the  birds 
salute  the  silences,  the  flowers  bloom,  all  the  way  along  the 
Nebraska  coast.  He  names  each  of  them  in  both  the  Ger- 
man and  Latin  tongues  with  loving  attention  and  praise. 

62 


PRINCE  MAXIMILIAN  63 

He  saw  and  felt  the  spirit  of  the  West.  The  eagle's  nest 
above  the  river,  the  ruined  cabin  in  a  dark  valley,  the  angry 
wind  storm,  the  moonlight  on  the  Missouri,  the  faces  and 
manners  of  the  Indians  and  fur  traders,  the  rich  soil,  the 
flowing  streams,  the  forests  where  the  steamer  stopped  to  cut 
wood  for  its  furnace,  are  all  fresh  and  real  in  his  stories  and 
in  his  pictures.  Some  of  the  things  which  he  saw  in  Nebras- 
ka are  best  given  in  his  own  words: 

"  In  a  dark  valley  of  the  forest  we  saw  a  long  Indian  cabin 
which  reached  nearly  across  the  vale  and  must  have  been 
built  for  a  large  number  of  men.  The  location  was  wild  and 
beautiful.  The  bald-headed  eagles  nest  everywhere  in  the 
top  of  the  high  trees  along  the  shore.  One  of  them  was  shot 
with  a  rifle.  In  places  smoke  rose  out  of  the  depths  of  the 
forest,  in  others  the  wood  and  the  ground  were  black  from 
fires.  Sometimes  the  Indians  start  these  fires  in  order  to 
destroy  their  trail  when  followed  by  enemies,  at  other  times 
they  arise  from  campfires  of  fur  traders  on  the  river  banks. 

***** 

We  saw  wild  geese  with  their  downy  young  goslings. 
The  old  birds  would  not  desert  their  children  even  when  our 
people  shot  among  them. 

In  a  beautiful  wild  region  we  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
great  Nemaha  River.  The  hunting  huts  of  the  Indians  stood 
in  the  forest,  but  nowhere  was  man  to  be  seen.  One  travels 
hundreds  of  miles  on  this  river  without  seeing  one  human 

being. 

***** 

In  the  evening  the  sun,  as  it  sank  below  the  treetops, 
gave  the  region  a  glow  of  parting  light.  We  enjoyed  a  view 
of  the  violet,  red  and  purple  tinted  hills  while  the  wide  mirror 
of  the  Missouri  and  surrounding  forests  glowed  as  though  on 
fire.  Quiet  reigned  in  this  remote  scene  of  nature  for  the 


64  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

wind  had  lulled  and  only  the  puffing  and  rushing  of  the 
steamboat  broke  the  sublime  silence. 


*     *     * 


At  night  we  lay  by  near  Morgan's  Island.  The  whip- 
poor-wills,  one  of  the  birds  we  had  not  met  before,  here  rilled 
all  the  forests  with  their  voices. 


On  the  left  bank  where  the  wide  prairie  clasped  a  wood 
in  its  embrace  the  little  Nemaha  River  broke  through.  At 
its  mouth  the  Missouri  is  very  shallow.  A  great  wind  blew 
our  steamer  upon  the  sand.  One  of  our  smoke  stacks  was 
blown  down.  Crows  flew  over  us  screaming  and  a  sand- 
piper with  dark  red  legs  ran  about  on  the  sandbar  near  the 
ship.  We  saw  the  different  kinds  of  grackle  (blackbirds) 
flying  together,  the  beautiful  yellow-headed  ones,  the  red- 
shouldered  ones,  and  the  bronze  variety. 

Toward  night  a  great  flight  of  more  than  100  pelicans 
went  over  us  in  a  northerly  direction.  Their  formation  was 
wedge  shaped,  at  times  a  half  circle.  We  could  clearly  see 
the  black  wing  feathers,  the  pouch  of  the  throat  and  the  long 
slanting  bills.  Our  hunters  killed  some  wild  turkeys  in  the 
twilight.  A  beautiful  flower  (phlox)  colors  great  fields  with 
blue  and  the  blue-birds'  quiet  little  song  was  heard. 


*     * 


Our  hunters  brought  on  board  a  raccoon,  a  rattlesnake 
and  black  snake,  and  found  a  wild  goose  nest  with  three  eggs. 
Near  by  we  saw  trails  of  Indians,  great  wolf  tracks  in  the 
sand,  and  on  the  trees  the  places  where  the  stags  had  rubbed 
their  growing  antlers. 

A  hunter  broke  off  a  poison  vine.  His  hands  and  face  are 
badly  swollen  to-day. 


PRINCE  MAXIMILIAN  65 

We  reached  the  mouth  of  Weeping  Water  creek.  In  the 
bushes  above  us  the  birds  sang  a  little  soft  song  or  twittering. 
The  fox-colored  thrush  (brown  thrasher)  trilled  in  the  tops 
of  the  cottonwoods  where  he  loves  to  sit.  Here  were  many 
plants  such  as  columbine,  maiden-hair  fern,  red  mulberry, 
blue-eyed  grass,  puccoon  and  purple  vetch. 


At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  May  3rd  "we  reached 
Mr.  Fontenelle's  house  at  Bellevue.  The  land  is  here  very 
fruitful  and  a  poorly  cultivated  acre  yields  one  hundred 
bushels  of  Indian  corn.  It  would  return  much  more  if  care- 
fully worked.  Cattle  also  succeed  here  splendidly,  give 
much  milk  but  require  salt  from  time  to  time.  Mr.  Fonte- 
nelle  thought  he  would  have  five  thousand  head  of  swine  in 
a  few  years  if  the  Indians  did  not  steal  too  many  from  him. 


We  lay  by  for  the  night  a  few  miles  above  Bellevue  (prob- 
ably near  where  Omaha  now  is).  Ducks  and  shore  birds 
covered  the  banks  about  us.  Stillness  reigned  in  the  wide 
wilderness.  Only  the  whip-poor-will's  voice  was  heard 
while  the  moon  mirrored  itself  in  the  river  where  some  of  our 
young  people  were  bathing.  In  the  morning  our  ship,  like 
a  smoke-vomiting  monster,  frightened  all  living  creatures. 
Geese  and  ducks  flew  in  all  directions. 


We  landed  at  Mr.  Cabanne's  trading  post  (ten  miles 
above  Omaha)  and  to  our  joy  we  saw  a  crowd  of  Otoe  and 
Omaha  Indians.  Many  of  them  were  marked  with  small- 
pox, some  had  only  one  eye  or  a  film  over  the  other  eye. 
Their  faces  were  striped  with  red.  Their  hair  was  hanging 
disorderly  down  to  the  neck.  A  small  brook  with  steep 
banks  flows  down  to  the  river  from  a  pleasant  little  side  val- 
ley in  which  are  the  corn  plantations.  Mr.  Cabanne  had 


66  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

planted  here  fifteen  acres  of  maize  which  produces  yearly 
two  thousand  bushels  of  this  grain,  for  the  yield  is  very  great. 


MISSOURI,  OTO  AND  PUNCAH  INDIANS, 
1833.  (From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western 
Travels."  Arthur  H.  Clark  Co.,  Cleve- 
land, Ohio.) 


Sitting  upon  the  balcony  of  Mr.  Cabanne  's  house  we  en- 
joyed a  wonderful  evening.  The  proud  Missouri  glistened 
with  splendor  in  the  glory  of  the  full  moon.  Quiet  reigned 

about  us,  only  the  frogs 
croaked  and  the  whip- 
poor-wills  called  contin- 
ually in  the  forest  near 
by.  Twenty  Omahas 
appeared  before  us.  The 
chief  dancer,  a  large  tall 
man,  wore  on  his  head 
a  high  feather  helmet, 
made  of  the  long  tail  and 
wing  feathers  of  owls  and 
eagles.  In  his  hand  he 
carried  a  bow  and  ar- 
rows. The  upper  half  of  his  body  was  naked  except  for 
a  white  skin  which  hung  over  his  right  shoulder  and  was 
decorated  with  tufts  of  feathers.  He  was  painted  with 
white  spots  and  stripes  and  looked  wild  and  warlike. 
Another  younger  man  with  him  bore  in  his  hand  a  war  club 
with  white  stripes  and  a  skunk  skin  at  the  handle.  They 
formed  a  line  while  in  front  of  them  a  drum  was  beaten  with 
rapid  stroke.  Several  men  beat  time  with  war  clubs  and  all 
of  them  sang  "Hei,  hei,  hei,"  or  else  "Heh,  heh,  heh,"  be- 
tween times  shouting  loud  yells.  The  dance  was  like  this: 
springing  with  both  feet,  a  short  leap  into  the  air,  with  the 
body  bent  forward  while  the  drum  was  struck  a  sharp  blow 
and  their  weapons  were  lifted  and  shaken.  In  this  manner 
they  jumped  about  with  great  force  for  over  an  hour,  the 
sweat  flowing  from  their  bodies.  A  clear  moonlight  lit  up 
the  wide  still  wilderness;  the  savage  tumult  of  the  Indian 


PRINCE  MAXIMILIAN  07 

bands  and  the  call  of  the  night  birds  made  this  a  scene  to  be 

long  remembered." 

***** 

Prince  Maximilian  died  at  New  Wied,  Germany,  Febru- 
ary 3,  1867,  less  than  a  month  before  this  part  of  the  wilder- 
ness he  so  well  described  became  a  state.  He  left  a  great 
museum  to  his  home  city.  To  the  world  he  left  the  record  of 
a  busy  life  well  spent  and  to  Nebraska  the  best  stories  and 
the  best  pictures  of  her  early  days.  His  name  deserves  to  be 
better  known  in  our  state  where  now  live  nearly  one  hundred 
thousand  Germans,  rejoicing  in  the  speech  and  traditions  of 
their  fatherland  and  rejoicing  no  less  in  their  homes  and 
freedom  found  in  the  West  whose  great  fortune  Prince 
Maximilian  foretold. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Make  a  list  of  the  birds  which  Prince  Maximilian  found  here.     Make  a 

list  of  the  flowers.     On  each  list  place  a  check  (X)  after  those  which 
you  know. 

2.  Just  why  was  it  that  Prince  Maximilian  saw  so  much  here  which  other 

explorers  did  not  notice? 

3.  John  Burroughs  says  that  we  cannot  see  a  bird  on  the  bush  unless  we 

have  a  bird  in  our  heart.     What  does  he  mean? 

4.  Did  Prince  Maximilian  love  nature?     What  tells? 

5.  Which  sees  life  most  truly,  the  scientist  or  the  poet? 

6.  What  tells  that  Prince  Maximilian  was  both  scientist  and  poet? 

7.  Are  you  glad  that  this  German  prince  came  to  Nebraska?     Why?     Should 

you  like  to  have  him  as  a  neighbor? 


SCOTT'S  BLUFF 

IN  the  early  fur  trading  days,  about  the  year  1830,  a  party 
of  trappers  came  down  the  North  Platte  River  in  canoes. 
A  little  way  above  where  Laramie River  joins  the  Platte  their 
canoes  were  upset  in  the  rapids  and  their  supply  of  powder 
and  food  was  lost.  One  of  their  number  named  Scott  was 
taken  sick  and  could  not  travel.  At  the  same  time  his  com- 
rades found  the  fresh  trail  of  another  party  of  trappers. 


SCOTT'S  BLUFF.     (From  photo  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon). 

They  left  Scott  alone  at  the  mouth  of  the  Laramie  River, 
promising  to  return  for  him  as  soon  as  they  had  secured 
supplies  from  the  other  trappers. 

Instead  of  returning  they  reported  that  he  had  died  on  the 
Laramie  River  and  continued  their  journey  down  the  North 
Platte.  The  next  year  trappers  on  their  way  to  the  moun- 
tains found  the  skeleton  of  Scott  near  a  spring  by  the  great 
bluff  which  now  bears  his  name.  Sick  and  starving  he  had 

68 


SCOTT'S  BLUFF  69 

dragged  himself  before  dying  forty  miles  down  the  river  from 
the  point  where  his  comrades  had  deserted  him. 

His  name  survives  in  the  great  headland  which  rises  eight 
hundred  feet  above  the  river,  the  most  prominent  landmark 
in  the  North  Platte  valley,  while  the  names  of  his  treacherous 
companions  are  lost. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  did  Scott's  companions  desert  him? 

2.  How  was  their  story  proven  untrue? 

3.  Which  would  you  rather  have  been,  Scott  or  one  of  his  companions? 


THE  FIRST  NEBRASKA  MISSIONARIES 

AFTER  the  explorer  and  the  fur  trader  the  missionary 
came  to  Nebraska.  Rev.  Moses  Merrill  and  his  wife, 
Eliza  Wilcox,  were  the  first  to  come.  They  were  sent  out  in 
1833  to  the  Otoe  Indians  by  the  Baptist  Missionary  Union. 
At  that  time  the  Otoe  tribe  lived  along  the  Platte  as  far  west 
as  the  mouth  of  the  Elkhorn.  Their  largest  village  was  in 
Saunders  County  about  ten  miles  north  of  the  place  where 
Ashland  now  is.  They  hunted  south  and  west  along  Salt 
Creek,  Weeping  Water  and  the  Nemaha. 

Mr.  Merrill  and  his  wife  drove  an  ox  team  from  Missouri 
to  Belle vue.  Here  was  an  Indian  trading  post  where  the 
Otoe,  Omaha  and  Pawnee  Indians  came  to  trade  furs  and 
skins  for  white  man 's  goods. 

At  first  very  few  Indians  attended  the  missionary  meet- 
ings and  those  who  came  begged  for  corn,  potatoes  and 
whisky.  Mr.  Merrill  began  to  study  the  Otoe  language  in 
order  that  he  might  talk  to  the  Indians  without  an  interpre- 
ter and  translate  the  Bible  and  hymns  into  their  tongue.  In 
this  way  he  spent  the  first  winter. 

The  next  spring  Mr.  Merrill  rode  on  horseback,  fording 
two  rivers,  to  the  Otoe  village  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
Platte  near  Ashland.  He  was  received  by  Itan,  the  great 
chief  of  the  Otoes,  in  one  of  his  lodges  which  was  made  by 
setting  large  trunks  of  trees  in  the  ground,  laying  poles  on 
them  and  covering  the  whole  with  grass  and  dirt.  This 
lodge  of  Itan  was  circular  in  form  and  measured  a  hundred 
and  twenty  feet  in  circumference. 

Itan  gave  Mr.  Merrill  a  feast  of  boiled  buffalo  meat  served 
in  a  wooden  bowl.  It  was  to  be  eaten  with  the  fingers,  the 
guest  eating  first.  All  the  rest  waited  until  he  had  finished. 
Itan  was  a  great  chief.  He  had  five  wives  and  four  houses 

70 


THE   FIRST  NEBRASKA  MISSIONARIES 


71 


for  them  to  live  in.  The  town  of  Yutan  in  Saunders  County 
is  named  for  him.  It  is  only  three  miles  from  where  his  lodge 
stood. 

On  Sunday,  the  next  day,  Mr.  Merrill  was  invited  out  to 
eat  four  times  before  noon.  He  went,  and  after  eating,  read 
to  the  Indians  part  of  his  translation  of  the  Bible.  He 
showed  the  children  some  pictures 
and  began  to  teach  them  to  sing 
the  scale.  The  children  were 
deeply  interested  and  tried  hard 
to  sound  the  notes  as  the  white 
man  did.  At  the  end  of  a  week 
two  of  the  children  could  sing  the 
scale  correctly  and  knew  twenty- 
two  letters  of  the  alphabet. 

One  day  Mr.  Merrill  learned 
that  fifty  Otoes  had  gone  to  the 
white  trading  post  with  fifty  bea- 
ver skins,  worth  five  hundred  dol- 
lars, to  trade  for  whisky.  Chief 
Itan  spoke  in  strong  words  to  the 
missionary  against  the  curse  of  the 
white  man's  strong  water.  On 
the  very  next  day  he  and  another 
Otoe  chief  were  drunk  and  talked 
very  loud  against  whisky,  saying 
that  it  was  bad,  the  Indians  did 
not  make  it,  the  white  man  was 
to  blame.  Mr.  Merrill  kept  on  trying  to  teach  them  better, 
reading  verses  from  the  Bible  and  praying  for  them. 

One  Indian  was  sick  and  the  Otoe  medicine  men  came  to 
cure  him.  The  sick  man  was  stretched  out  naked  in  his 
lodge.  The  medicine  men  beat  their  drums,  shook  their  rat- 
tles and  danced  around  him,  each  stopping  to  take  a  mouthful 
of  water  from  time  to  time  and  to  spurt  it  on  the  sick  man 's 
head.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  he  survived  this  treatment. 


THE  BUILDING  OF  AN  EARTH 
LODGE 


72  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

Then  the  Otoes  went  away  for  their  summer  hunt.  When 
they  came  back  in  the  fall  they  brought  skins  and  began  to 
trade  them  for  whisky.  Mr.  Merrill  wrote  from  a  trading 
post  where  whisky  was  sold  as  follows:  "This  is  not  the 
house  of  God,  nor  the  gate  of  heaven.  It  is  rather  the  house 
of  Satan  and  the  gate  of  hell.  Two  kegs  of  whisky  were 
carried  from  the  house  this  morning  by  Indians.  They  will 
trade  their  horses,  their  guns  and  even  their  blankets  for  this 
poisonous  drink." 

It  was  against  the  law  then,  as  now,  to  sell  liquor  to 
Indians,  but  Nebraska  was  far  out  on  the  frontier  and  the 
white  traders  could  make  greater  profit  by  selling  whisky 
than  in  any  other  way. 

In  September,  1835,  Mr.  Merrill  moved  his  family  to  the 
Otoe  Mission  on  the  Platte  River,  about  eight  miles  west  of 
Belle vue.  Here  the  government  built  a  log  cabin  and  a 
schoolhouse  which  enabled  him  to  carry  on  his  mission  work 
away  from  the  evils  of  the  trading  post.  It  was  a  beautiful 
site  with  an  open  prairie  sloping  to  the  Platte  with  rich 
meadow  for  stock  and  gardening  and  a  large  body  of  timber 
close  by.  Half  of  the  Otoe  tribe  moved  there  and  made  their 
village  at  the  mission. 

The  Otoes  were  very  poor  these  years  and  became  poorer. 
They  hunted  deer,  elk  and  buffalo  in  the  summer  of  1836  and 
brought  home  very  little  meat.  Their  appetite  for  whisky 
was  greater  than  before  and  the  more  bad  luck  they  had  the 
more  whisky  they  wanted.  Many  were  sick  with  fever  this 
summer  and  Mr.  Merrill  gave  them  food  and  medicine,  cared 
for  them  and  tried  hard  to  have  them  give  up  liquor  and  look 
after  their  crops  and  families.  He  urged  them  to  keep  away 
from  the  places  where  whisky  was  sold  and  this  stirred  up  the 
traders  against  him,  as  the  whisky  trade  was  their  best  busi- 
ness. For  a  single  tin  cup  full  of  whisky  the  trader  would 
often  get  ten  dollars'  worth  of  furs. 

When  the  people  became  sick  and  began  to  die  the  traders 
told  them  that  God  was  angry  with  the  Otoes  for  having  the 


THE  FIRST  NEBRASKA  MISSIONARIES  73 

missionaries  among  them.  Two  pupils  in  Mr.  Merrill's 
school  died  in  the  fall  and  the  traders  said  that  they  were 
killed  for  learning  to  read.  As  the  whisky  habit  grew  in  the 
tribe  the  men  became  miserable  and  quarrelsome.  The 
United  States  had  sent  a  farmer  and  a  blacksmith  to  teach 
the  Indians  how  to  farm  and  to  make  tools  for  them.  These 
men  and  their  families  lived  near  the  Mission.  Drunken 
Otoes  shot  at  the  farmer  and  both  he  and  the  blacksmith 
moved  their  families  back  to  Bellevue,  leaving  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Merrill  alone  among  the  Indians  at  the  village. 

Two  of  Itan  's  wives  ran  away  with  two  Otoe  young  men. 
Itan  was  in  a  very  great  rage  and  said  that  he  would  kill  the 
young  men  when  they  came  back.  News  was  brought  that 
these  braves  were  in  the  village  and  Itan  took  his  gun  and 
pistol  to  kill  them.  When  he  passed  the  mission  house  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Merrill  went  out  and  begged  him  not  to  begin  a 
bloody  fight.  He  was  wild  for  revenge  and  went  on.  The 
two  young  men  came  out  to  meet  Chief  Itan  singing  their 
war  song.  The  chief  fired  his  musket  at  one  of  the  young 
men  and  missed  him.  Then  one  of  the  chief's  friends  fired 
at  the  same  young  man  and  he  fell.  He  rose,  however,  and 
shot  the  chief  through  the  body.  A  brother  of  this  young 
man  then  shot  Itan  the  second  time.  One  of  Itan 's  friends 
shot  the  brother.  A  third  young  man  shot  Itan  again  and 
was  at  once  shot  himself.  The  three  young  men  and  Chief 
Itan  died  that  evening.  Two  of  them  were  Mr.  Merrill's 
pupils.  This  happened  on  April  28,  1837.  The  whole  Otoe 
tribe  was  torn  into  factions  by  this  tragedy.  Some  wanted 
to  kill  the  friends  of  the  young  men,  others  to  avenge  their 
death.  The  bloody  feud  over  the  fight  lasted  for  many  years. 

After  Itan 's  death  Melhunca,  the  second  chief  in  the  tribe, 
came  to  take  breakfast  with  Mr.  Merrill.  He  wanted  pres- 
ents and  said  that  the  traders  told  him  it  was  bad  for  the 
teacher  to  live  near  him  and  never  give  the  Indians  presents 
or  fine  clothes,  and  sugar  and  coffee  as  the  traders  did.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Merrill  tried  to  show  him  that  they  were  poor  and 


74  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

had  no  means  of  making  great  profits,  as  the  traders  had 
selling  whisky.  They  urged  him  to  keep  away  from  liquor. 
He  soon  became  angry  and  said  he  was  going  at  once  to  the 
trading  post  to  trade  horses  for  whisky.  On  the  next  day 
the  school  children  who  were  given  bread  for  lunch  every 
day  they  came  to  read  began  to  complain  loudly  and  said 
that  they  would  not  read  any  more  unless  they  were  given 
a  full  dinner  every  day. 

In  August,  1837,  a  band  of  fifty  loway  Indians  came  over 
from  the  Weeping  Water  to  trade  with  the  Otoes.  They 
brought  fifteen  kegs  of  whisky.  Mr.  Merrill  held  a  great 
temperance  meeting  that  day.  The  next  day  the  whole  Otoe 
village  was  drinking  whisky.  One  Otoe  had  his  ears  cut  off 
and  another  was  stabbed  and  died.  The  loways  left,  taking 
with  them  six  Otoe  ponies,  paid  for  in  whisky. 

In  1838  Mr.  Merrill  went  with  the  Otoes  on  their  buffalo 
hunt.  By  this  time  he  had  learned  to  speak  their  language 
and  had  translated  portions  of  the  Bible  and  several  hymns 
into  Otoe.  The  Otoe  hymns  had  been  printed  in  a  book  with 
the  name : 

Wdtwhtl  Wdwdklha  Eva  Wdhonetl 
and  was  the  first  Nebraska  book  ever  made. 

In  spite  of  all  Mr.  Merrill  could  do  the  Otoe  men  cared 
more  for  whisky  and  less  for  good  things  every  year.  They 
no  longer  loved  their  old  time  games  and  exercises.  They 
longed  for  the  white  man's  fire-water  and  the  visions  that 
danced  before  their  brains  when  they  drank  it  more  than  for 
all  the  gospel  messages  and  Christian  hymns  brought  by  the 
missionary.  All  they  could  get  was  spent  for  liquor  and 
food  was  begged  from  the  mission.  The  young  men  became 
impudent  and  pretended  to  be  Sioux  in  order  to  frighten  the 
missionary  family. 

It  was  six  years  since  Mr.  Merrill  and  his  wife  came  to 
give  their  lives  in  teaching  and  saving  one  tribe  of  Nebraska 
Indians.  A  baby  boy,  Samuel  Pearce,  had  been  born  to 
them  in  1835.  He  became  a  Baptist  minister  and  is  to-day 


THE  FIRST  NEBRASKA   MISSIONARIES 


75 


the  second  oldest  living  white  person  born  in  Nebraska,  the 
oldest  being  Major  William  Clark  Kennerly,  of  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
who  was  born  at  Ft.  Atkinson,  Nov.  2, 1824.  Mr.  Merrill  lives 
at  Squirrel  Island,  Maine.  They  had  built  a  large  log  mis- 
sion house  with  a  great  stone  chimney  which  could  be  seen 
for  many  miles.  In  this 
they  held  school  on  week 
days  for  the  Otoe  chil- 
dren and  here  they  held 
their  Sunday  services. 

A  new  and  deadly 
enemy  to  the  mission 
appeared.  Mr.  Merrill 
became  the  victim  of 
consumption.  Exposure, 

overwork  and  grief  has-      OLD   OTOE    MISSION.     (From   photograph 

tened  its  ravages.     He 

was  deeply  discouraged  and  wrote  in  his  diary  at  this  time : 
"  Formerly  Mrs.  Merrill  felt  perfectly  safe  day  or  night,  but 
it  is  not  so  now.  The  Otoes  trample  upon  my  property  and 
rights  unreproved.  They  occupy  my  pasture  with  their  cattle 
and  horses  when  it  suits  their  convenience,  often  leaving  the 
fence  thrown  down.  They  steal  my  potatoes,  pumpkins 
and  corn  by  night.  As  we  are  alone  it  would  not  be  prudent 
to  resist  these  thefts.  How  long  we  shall  be  able  to  live 
quietly  in  our  own  habitation  is  uncertain.  Indeed  we  are 
disturbed  often  now.  My  family  fear  these  vagrant  Otoes. 
These  Indians  do  not  feel  friendly  toward  white  people. 
They  are  ungrateful  for  favors  received." 

Mr.  Merrill  grew  worse  rapidly.  He  died  on  February 
6,  1840,  and  was  buried  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Missouri 
River  opposite  Bellevue.  The  Otoes  called  him  "The-One- 
Who-Always-Speaks-The-Truth." 

On  a  Nebraska  farm  in  Sarpy  County  sloping  gently  to 
the  Platte  River  is  a  grove  of  giant  cottonwoods  over  eighty 
years  old.  In  their  midst  stands  an  old  building  with  a  great 


76  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

stone  chimney.     This  is  the  monument  and  witness  to-day  of 
the  life  and  labors  of  the  first  missionaries  to  Nebraska. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  What  two  rivers  did  Moses  Merrill  ford  in  going  from  Bellevue  to  the 

Otoe  village? 

2.  Why  did  the  Nebraska  Indians  build  their  lodges  out  of  earth? 

3.  Why  did  the  Indians  wait  until  Mr.  Merrill  finished  before  they  ate? 

4.  Could  Indians  sing  before  Mr.  Merrill  taught  them  the  scale?     Why? 

5.  Who  was  to  blame  for  the  ruin  caused  by  whisky,  the  white  man  or  the 

Indian? 

6.  What  do  you  know  of  Itan's  character  from  this  story? 

7.  Explain  the  action  of  the  Otoe  school  children  in  demanding  a  full  dinner 

and  tell  what  you  think  of  it. 

8.  Was  Mr.  Merrill's  mission  to  the  Otoes  a  success?     Why? 


FATHER  DE  SMET 


ONE  of  the  most  honored  names  in  Nebraska  annals  is 
that  of  Father  Pierre  Jean  De  Smet,  first  Catholic  mis- 
sionary to  the  Indians  of  the  Platte  and  upper  Missouri 
region.  He  was  born  in  Belgium  January  30,  1801,  came 
to  St.  Louis  in  1823,  and  in  1838 
reached  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  as 
missionary  to  the  Pottawatomie  In- 
dians who  had  just  removed  from 
their  old  home  in  Illinois  to  the 
borders  of  Nebraska. 

For  the  next  thirty  years  Father 
De  Smet  was  the  most  active  mis- 
sionary in  the  western  world.  He 
explored  the  plains  and  mountains, 
crossed  the  continent  several  times 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  founded  mis- 
sions wherever  he  went  and  gained 
the  confidence  of  the  Indians  every- 
where. He  also  made  many  visits  to  Europe  to  secure 
funds  for  mission  work. 

Only  a  small  part  of  Father  De  Smet's  active  life  was 
spent  in  the  region  which  is  now  Nebraska,  but  he  was 
known  and  loved  by  all  the  tribes  of  Nebraska  Indians  and 
probably  had  more  influence  over  them  than  had  any  other 
man  at  any  time.  Four  times  he  crossed  Nebraska  over  the 
Oregon  Trail,  and  seventeen  times  on  steamboat,  skiff  or 
canoe  he  followed  the  waters  of  the  Missouri  River  past  the 
Nebraska  shores. 

The  beauty  of  early  Nebraska  Father  De  Smet  was  quick 
to  see  and  appreciate.  No  better  picture  of  our  own  Platte 
River  has  ever  been  given  than  this  by  him  in  1840: 

77 


FATHER  DE  SMET.  (From 
Chittenden  &  Richardson's 
"Life,  Letters  &  Travels  of 
Father  De  Smet."  Francis 
P.  Harper,  N.  Y.) 


78  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

"I  was  often  struck  with  admiration  at  the  sight  of  the 
picturesque  scenes  which  we  enjoyed  all  the  way  up  the 
Platte.  Think  of  the  big  ponds  that  you  have  seen  in  the 
parks  of  European  noblemen,  dotted  with  little  wooded 
islands.  The  Platte  offers  you  these  by  thousands  and  of  all 
shapes.  I  have  seen  groups  of  islands  that  one  might  easily 
take,  from  a  distance,  for  fleets  under  sail,  garlanded  with 
verdure  and  festooned  with  flowers;  and  the  rapid  flow  of  the 
river  past  them  made  them  seem  to  be  flying  over  the 
water." 

The  future  of  this  region  was  clearly  foreseen  by  this  great 
missionary.  The  vacant  plains  stirred  within  him  mem- 
ories of  the  crowded  peoples  of  Europe  when  he  wrote: 

"In  my  visits  to  the  Indian  tribes  I  have  several  times 
traversed  the  immense  plains  of  the  West.  Every  time  I 
have  found  myself  amid  a  painful  void.  Europe 's  thousands 
of  poor  who  cry  for  bread  and  wander  without  shelter  or  hope 
often  occur  to  my  thoughts.  'Unhappy  poor,'  I  often  cry, 
'why  are  ye  not  here?  Your  industry  and  toil  would  end 
your  sorrows.  Here  you  might  rear  a  smiling  home  and  reap 
in  plenty  the  fruit  of  your  toil.'  The  sound  of  the  axe  and 
hammer  will  echo  in  this  wilderness;  broad  farms  with  or- 
chard and  vineyard,  alive  with  domestic  animals  and  poultry, 
will  cover  these  desert  plains  to  provide  for  thick-coming 
cities  which  will  rise  as  if  by  enchantment  with  dome  and 
tower,  church  and  college,  school  and  house,  hospital  and 
asylums." 

Father  De  Smet  was  present  and  took  an  active  part  in 
the  first  Fort  Laramie  council  of  1851,  which  resulted  in  the 
treaty  of  that  year.  He  wrote  the  best  account  of  this  great 
event  in  Indian  history.  Although  called  ''The  Fort  Lara- 
mie Treaty"  the  council  was  held  and  the  treaty  made  forty 
miles  east  of  Fort  Laramie  in  what  is  now  Scotts  Bluff  Coun- 
ty, Nebraska.  Here,  on  a  vast  plain  where  the  waters  of 
Horse  Creek  unite  with  those  of  the  Platte,  the  tribes  of  the 
plains  and  the  mountains  met  and  for  the  first  time  made  a 


FATHER  DESMET  79 

treaty  with  the  United  States,  peace  with  each  other  and  a 
division  of  the  land  among  the  tribes.  This  council  lasted 
for  eighteen  days  and  was  attended  by  over  10,000  Indians. 
Here  Father  De  Smet  was  greeted  by  thousands  whose  homes 
he  had  visited;  his  advice  was  eagerly  sought  on  the  great 
questions  before  them  and  the  rite  of  baptism  was  adminis- 
tered by  him  to  1586  Indians. 

The  Sioux  were  always  near  the  heart  of  Father  De  Smet. 
He  admired  their  courage  and  independence.  He  sought  to 
abate  their  cruelty.  In  a  great  speech  to  them  he  told  how 
the  Indians  at  the  head  of  the  Missouri  had  buried  the 
hatchet  and  forsaken  the  white  man 's  firewater.  He  asked 
them  to  do  the  same.  The  head  chief  replied: 

''Black-robe,  I  speak  in  the  name  of  the  chiefs  and 
braves.  The  words  you  bring  from  the  Master  of  Life  are 
fair.  We  love  them.  We  hear  them  to-day  for  the  first 
time. 

"  Black-robe,  you  are  only  passing  by  our  land.  To- 
morrow we  will  hear  your  voice  no  more.  We  shall  be,  as  we 
have  been,  like  the  Wishtonwish  (prairie  dogs)  who  have 
their  lodges  in  the  ground  and  know  nothing. 

"Black-robe,  come  and  set  up  your  lodge  with  us.  We 
have  bad  hearts,  but  those  who  bring  the  good  word  have 
never  got  as  far  as  to  us.  Come  and  we  will  listen  and  our 
young  men  will  learn  to  have  sense." 

Father  De  Smet's  greatest  service  to  Nebraska  and  the 
West  occurred  in  1868.  For  several  years  a  bloody  war  had 
raged  along  the  Sioux  border.  A  peace  commission  had  been 
sent  from  Washington  to  Fort  Laramie  with  General  Sher- 
man at  its  head.  Red  Cloud,  Sitting  Bull  and  other  hostile 
chiefs  had  gone  with  several  thousand  followers  into  the  wild 
region  northwest  of  the  Black  Hills.  At  the  request  of  the 
United  States  Father  De  Smet  left  his  home  at  St.  Louis  and 
journeyed  by  steamboat  up  the  Missouri  River  to  Fort  Rice 
near  the  mouth  of  Cannonball  River  in  North  Dakota.  From 
here  he  set  out  alone  with  an  interpreter  and  escort  of  Indi- 


80 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


INDIAN  WELCOME  TO  FATHER  DE  SMET. 
(From  Chittenden  &  Richardson's  "Life, 
Letters  &  Travels  of  Father  De  Smet." 
Francis  P.  Harper,  N.  Y.) 


ans  for  the  camp  of  the  hostiles.  He  found  these  near  the 
junction  of  the  Powder  and  Yellowstone  rivers.  He  was 
received  joyfully  by  them  and  here  on  June  21st  he  held  a 

great  council  with  5,000 
hostile  Sioux.  Father  De 
Smet  was  given  a  seat  in 
the  center  near  the  two 
head  chiefs  Four  Horns 
and  Black  Moon.  His 
large  white  banner  of 
peace  was  placed  beside 
him.  His  own  account 
says: 

"The  council  was 
opened  with  songs  and 
dances,  noisy,  joyful  and 
very  wild,  in  which  the 
warriors  alone  took  part.  Then  Four  Horns  lighted  his 
calumet  of  peace ;  he  presented  it  first  solemnly  to  the  Great 
Spirit,  imploring  his  light  and  favor,  and  then  offered  it  to 
the  four  cardinal  points,  to  the  sun  and  the  earth,  as  wit- 
nesses to  the  action  of  the  council.  Then  he  himself  passed 
the  calumet  from  mouth  to  mouth.  I  was  the  first  to 
receive  it,  with  my  interpreter,  and  every  chief  was  placed 
according  to  the  rank  that  he  held  in  the  tribe.  Each  one 
took  a  few  puffs.  When  the  ceremony  of  the  calumet  was 
finished,  the  head  chief  addressed  me,  saying,  '  Speak,  Black- 
robe,  my  ears  are  open  to  hear  your  words." 

The  white  haired  missionary  was  then  sixty-seven  years 
old,  with  a  face  calm,  mild  and  peaceful,  which  all  loved  to 
look  upon.  He  spoke  to  the  fierce  Indians  as  to  children, 
told  them  the  terms  of  peace  he  brought  them  and  pointed 
out  the  danger  and  folly  of  fighting  the  white  man.  At  the 
close  of  his  speech  Chief  Black  Moon  said: 

"We  understand  the  words  the  Black-robe  has  spoken. 
They  are  good  and  full  of  truth.  This  land  is  ours.  Here 


FATHER  DsSMET  81 

our  fathers  were  born  and  are  buried.  We  wish,  like  them, 
to  live  and  to  be  buried  here.  We  have  been  forced  to  hate 
the  whites.  Let  them  treat  us  like  brothers  and  the  war  will 
cease.  Let  them  stay  at  home.  We  will  never  go  to  trouble 
them.  Thou,  Messenger  of  Peace,  hast  given  us  a  glimpse 
of  a  better  future.  Let  us  throw  a  veil  over  the  past  and  let 
it  be  forgotten.  Some  of  our  warriors  will  go  with  you  to 
Fort  Rice  to  hear  the  words  of  the  Great  Father's  commis- 
sioners. If  they  are  acceptable  peace  shall  be  made." 

The  other  chiefs  spoke  in  the  same  spirit  and  the  second 
great  treaty  of  Fort  Laramie,  that  of  1868,  was  concluded. 

Father  De  Smet  died  May  23,  1873,  at  St.  Louis.  In  his 
death  the  West  lost  a  great  missionary  and  explorer,  and  the 
Indians  lost  their  best  friend. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  How  far  has  Father  De  Smet's  prophecy,  regarding  Europe's  poor,  become 

true  in  Nebraska? 

2.  Explain  why  Father  De  Smet  had  so  much  influence  over  the  Indians. 

3.  Did  Chief  Black  Moon  tell  the  truth  in  his  speech? 


JOHN  C.  FREMONT 

ONE  of  the  most  noted  names  in  the  story  of  the  West  is 
that  of  John  C.  Fremont.  He  was  sometimes  called 
"The  Pathfinder."  Many  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in 
exploring  the  plains  and  the  mountains.  He  first  became 
famous  as  leader  of  an  exploring  expedition  which  crossed 
Nebraska  in  1842.  Starting  June  10th  from  the  mouth  of 

the  Kansas  River,  he  followed  the 
Oregon  Trail  to  the  forks  of  the 
Platte.  Here  his  party  divided, 
one  party  going  by  way  of  the  North 
Platte,  the  other  by  way  of  the 
South  Platte,  both  meeting  at  Fort 
Laramie.  From  there  Fremont  fol- 
lowed the  Oregon  Trail  to  the  South 
Pass  and  on  August  15th  climbed 
to  the  top  of  what  has  since  been 
called  Fremont 's  Peak  at  the  sum- 
mit of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
Coming  down  the  Platte  river  in  boats,  Fremont 's  party 
was  wrecked  in  the  great  canyon  of  the  Platte  near  where  Cas- 
per, Wyoming,  is  located.  Saving  what  they  could  they 
followed  the  Platte  valley  and  reached  the  trading  post  of 
Peter  A.  Sarpy  at  Bellevue  on  October  1st. 

The  next  year  on  May  29th  Fremont  left  the  mouth  of  the 
Kansas  River  and  took  a  more  southerly  route  through  north- 
ern Kansas,  and  on  June  25th  crossed  into  Nebraska  in  what 
is  now  Hitchcock  County.  After  following  the  Republican 
valley  for  some  days,  he  crossed  to  the  South  Platte  and 
thence  over  the  mountains  to  Salt  Lake  and  California. 

Fremont  saw  the  great  future  of  the  West  more  clearly 
than  other  explorers.  He  saw  in  Nebraska  the  rich  soil,  the 

82 


JOHN  C.  FREMONT 


JOHN  C.  FREMONT  83 

abundant  grass  and  the  beautiful  wild  flowers.  To  his  eyes 
this  region  looked  like  a  garden,  instead  of  a  desert,  as  it  had 
been  represented  by  many. 

Nebraska  probably  owes  its  name  to  Fremont.  In  his 
report  to  the  secretary  of  war,  he  calls  our  great  central  river 
by  its  Indian  name  Nebraska,  or  Flat  Water,  and  the  secre- 
tary of  war  afterwards  suggested  Nebraska  as  a  good  name 
for  the  new  territory. 

Fremont  believed  in  the  future  Pacific  Railroad  and  tried 
to  find  an  easy,  natural  route  on  which  it  might  be  built.  He 
became  senator  from  the  new  state  of  California  in  1850,  and 
candidate  for  President  in  1856.  He  died  July  13, 1890,  hav- 
ing lived  to  see  the  western  wilderness  which  he  had  explored 
filled  with  millions  of  people,  great  cities  built  on  the  plains 
and  in  the  mountains  and  several  Pacific  railroads  where  he 
had  dreamed  of  one. 

One  of  the  most  thriving  cities  of  Nebraska  proudly  bears 
Fremont 's  name.  The  great  United  States  dam  at  the  can- 
yon of  the  Platte  River  where  Fremont  and  his  party  were 
wrecked  in  1842  is  called  "The  Pathfinder, "  and  great  canals 
from  its  mighty  reservoir  carry  the  waters  from  the  Rocky 
Mountains  far  out  on  the  plains  of  western  Nebraska,  making 
them  blossom  everywhere  in  memory  of  this  great  explorer 
who  had  confidence  in  the  development  of  the  West. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  did  Fremont  do  for  Nebraska? 

2.  Why  did  he  see  the  future  of  this  region  more  truly  than  other  explorers? 

3.  Can  you  show  that  what  we  see  in  things  reveals  what  we  ourselves  are? 

4.  Are  you  glad  that  our  State  was  named  Nebraska?     Why? 


THE  OVERLAND  TRAILS 

EACH  of  the  old  overland  trails  which  crosses  Nebraska 
from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  mountains  has  a  story. 
It  is  a  story  written  deep  in  the  lives  of  men  and  women,  and 
in  the  record  of  the  westward  march  of  the  American  people. 
The  story  of  these  overland  trails  was  also  written  in  broad 
deep  furrows  across  our  prairies.  Along  these  trails  journeyed 
thousands  of  men,  women  and  children  with  ox  teams,  carts, 
wheelbarrows,  and  on  foot,  to  settle  the  great  country  be- 
yond. Over  them  marched  the  soldiers  who  built  forts  to 
protect  the  settlers.  Then  the  long  freighting  trains  loaded 
with  food,  tools  and  clothing  passed  that  way.  So  there 
came  to  be  great  beaten  thoroughfares  one  or  two  hundred 
feet  wide,  deeply  cut  in  the  earth  by  the  wheels  of  wagons 
and  the  feet  of  pilgrims. 

The  Oregon  Trail  was  the  first  and  most  famous  of  these 
in  Nebraska.  It  started  from  the  Missouri  River  at  Independ- 
ence, Missouri,  ran  across  the  northeast  corner  of  Kansas 
and  entered  Nebraska  near  the  point  where  Gage  and  Jeffer- 
son counties  meet  on  the  Nebraska-Kansas  line.  It  followed 
the  course  of  the  Little  Blue  River  across  Jefferson,  Thayer, 
Nuckolls,  Clay  and  Adams  counties,  then  across  the  divide 
to  the  Platte  near  the  head  of  Grand  Island  in  Hall  County, 
then  along  the  south  side  of  the  Platte  through  Kearney, 
Phelps,  Gosper,  and  Dawson,  to  a  point  in  Keith  county 
about  seven  miles  east  of  Big  Springs,  where  it  crossed  the 
South  Platte  and  continued  up  the  south  side  of  the  North 
Platte  through  Keith,  Garden,  Morrill  and  Scotts  Bluff 
counties,  where  it  passed  out  of  Nebraska  into  Wyoming. 

The  beginnings  of  the  Oregon  Trail  in  Nebraska  were 
made  in  1813  by  the  little  band  of  returning  Astorians  as 
they,  leading  their  one  poor  horse,  tramped  their  weary  way 

85 


86 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


down  the  Platte  valley  to  the  Otoe  village  where  they  took 
canoes  for  their  journey  down  the  river.  These  first  Oregon 
Trailers  left  no  track  deep  enough  to  be  followed.  They 
simply  made  known  the  way.  After  them  fur  traders  on 
horseback  and  afoot  followed  nearly  the  same  route.  On 
April  10,  1830,  Milton  Sublette  with  ten  wagons  and  one 
milch  cow  left  St.  Louis,  and  arrived  at  the  Wind  River 
Mountains  on  July  16th.  They  returned  to  St.  Louis  the 
same  summer,  bringing  back  ten  wagons  loaded  with  furs  and 
the  faithful  cow  which  furnished  milk  all  the  way.  Theirs 
were  the  first  wagon  wheels  on  the  Oregon  Trail  across  Ne- 
braska. The  track  they  made  from  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas 
river  up  the  valley  of  the  Little  Blue  and  up  the  south  side  of 
the  Platte  and  North  Platte  was  followed  by  others,  and  thus 
became  the  historic  trail.  Their  famous  cow,  and  the  old 
horse  which  seventeen  years  before  carried  the  burdens  for 
the  Astorians  are  entitled  to  a  high  place  among  the  pioneers 
of  the  West. 

In  1832,  Captain  Bonneville,  whose  story  is  told  by  Wash- 
ington Irving,  followed  over  Subletted  trail  from  the  Mis- 
souri River  to  the  mountains.  In  the  same  year  Nathaniel 

J.  Wyeth  following  the 
same  trail  pushed 
through  the  South  Pass 
in  the  mountains  and 
on  to  Oregon,  thus  mak- 
ing an  open  road  from 
the  Missouri  River  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  With 
slight  changes,  this  road 
remained  the  Oregon 
Trail  through  the  years  of  overland  travel.  Every  spring  in 
May  the  long  emigrant  wagon  trains  left  the  Missouri  River 
and  arrived  on  the  Pacific  coast  in  November.  It  was  a  won- 
derful trip.  Every  day  the  train  moved  fifteen  or  twenty 
miles.  Every  night  it  camped.  Every  day  there  were  new 


OLD  FORT  HALL  ON  THE  OREGON  TRAIL 


THE  OVERLAND  TRAILS  87 

scenes  and  events.  New  friends  were  found  among  the 
travelers.  Children  were  born  on  the  way.  There  were 
weddings  and  funerals.  It  was  a  great  traveling  city  mov- 
ing two  thousand  miles,  from  the  river  to  the  ocean. 

There  are  five  periods  in  the  story  of  the  Oregon  Trail. 
The  first  was  the  period  of  finding  the  way  and  breaking  the 
trail  and  extends  from  the  return  of  the  Astorians  in  1813  to 
the  Wyeth  wagons  in  1832.  The  second  period  was  that  of 
the  early  Oregon  migration  and  extends  from  1832  to  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  California  in  1849.  The  third  period 
was  that  of  the  rush  for  gold  and  extends  from  1849  to  1860. 
During  this  period  the  Oregon  Trail  became  the  greatest 
traveled  highway  in  the  world,  wider  and  more  beaten  than 
a  city  street  and  hundreds  of  thousands  passed  over  it.  The 
fourth  period  is  that  of  the  decline  of  the  Oregon  Trail  and 
extends  from  1860  to  1869.  The  fifth  period,  from  1869  to 
the  present  day,  is  witnessing  its  gradual  effacement. 

The  best  brief  description  of  the  Oregon  Trail  is  that  of 
Father  De  Smet,  who  knew  it  well  and  tells  of  its  appearance 
when  first  seen  by  him  and  his  party  of  Indians  from  the 
Upper  Missouri  in  1851 : 

"Our  Indian  companions,  who  had  never  seen  but  the 
narrow  hunting  paths  by  which  they  transport  themselves 
and  their  lodges,  were  filled  with  admiration  on  seeing  this 
noble  highway,  which  is  as  smooth  as  a  barn  floor  swept  by 
the  winds,  and  not  a  blade  of  grass  can  shoot  up  on  it  on 
account  of  the  continual  passing.  They  conceived  a  high 
idea  of  the  countless  white  nations.  They  fancied  that  all 
had  gone  over  that  road  and  that  an  immense  void  must 
exist  in  the  land  of  the  rising  sun.  They  styled  the  route  the 
'Great  Medicine  Road  of  the  Whites.'  " 

In  another  place  Father  De  Smet  tells  of  the  great  govern- 
ment wagon  trains  he  met  on  the  Oregon  Trail  in  1858: 

"Each  train  consisted  of  twenty-six  wagons,  each  wagon 
drawn  by  six  yoke  of  oxen.  The  trains  made  a  line  fifty 
miles  long.  Each  wagon  is  marked  with  a  name  as  in  the 


88 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


case  of  ships,  and  these  names  served  to  furnish  amusement 
to  the  passers-by.  Such  names  as  The  Constitution,  The 
President,  The  Great  Republic,  The  King  of  Bavaria,  Louis 
Napoleon,  Dan  O'Connell,  Old  Kentuck,  were  daubed  in 
great  letters  on  each  side  of  the  carriage.  On  the  plains  the 
wagoner  assumes  the  style  of  Captain,  being  placed  in  com- 
mand of  his  wagon  and  twelve  oxen.  The  master  wagoner  is 
admiral  of  this  little  land  fleet  of  26  captains  and  312  oxen. 
At  a  distance  the  white  awnings  of  the  wagons  have  the  effect 
of  a  fleet  of  vessels  with  all  canvas  spread." 

The  second  important  trail  across  Nebraska  is  the  one 


EMIGRANT  TRAIN  CROSSING  THE  PLAINS 

which  started  from  the  banks  of  the  Missouri  River  near 
Bellevue  and  Florence,  followed  up  the  north  side  of  the 
Platte  and  North  Platte  to  Fort  Laramie,  where  it  joined  the 
older  Oregon  Trail.  This  was  the  route  across  Nebraska  of 
the  returning  Astorians  in  1813  and  some  of  the  early  fur 
traders.  The  Mormons  made  this  a  wagon  road  in  1847 
when  their  great  company  which  wintered  at  Florence  and 
Bellevue  took  this  way  to  the  valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake. 
It  was  often  called  the  Mormon  Trail.  Some  of  the  immi- 
grants to  Oregon  and  California  went  over  this  route  and 
hence  it  is  sometimes  called  the  Oregon  Trail  or  California 
Trail.  There  was  less  travel  on  this  trail  than  on  the  one 


THE  OVERLAND  TRAILS 


89 


south  of  the  Platte  because  there  was  more  sand  here.  This 
north  side  trail  ran  through  the  counties  of  Douglas,  Sarpy, 
Dodge,  Colfax,  Platte,  Merrick,  Hall,  Buffalo,  Dawson, 
Lincoln,  Garden,  Morrill 
and  Scotts  Bluff. 

The  third  celebrated 
trail  across  Nebraska 
was  from  the  Missouri 
River  to  Denver  and 
was  called  the  Denver 
Trail.  It  had  many 
branches  between  the 
Missouri  River  and  Fort 


EZRA 


TRAIL 


Kearney.  Near  this 
point  they  united  and 
followed  up  the  south  bank  of  the  Platte  to  Denver.  The 
route  from  Omaha  to  Denver  was  up  the  north  bank  of  the 
Platte  to  Shinn  's  ferry  in  Butler  County  where  it  crossed  to 
the  south  side  and  continued  up  the  river  to  Fort  Kearney. 
There  was  also  a  road  from  Nebraska  City  up  the  south 
bank  of  the  Platte,  which  was  joined  by  the  Omaha  road 

after  it  crossed  the  river. 
It  was  called  the  Fort 
Kearney  and  Nebraska 
City  Road.  A  new  and 
more  direct  road  was  laid 
out  in  1862  from  Ne- 
braska City  west 
through  the  counties  of 
Otoe,  Lancaster,  Seward, 
York,  Hall  and  Kearney. 
This  was  the  shortest 
and  best  road  to  Denver. 

It  was  called  the  Nebraska  City  Cut-off.  It  became  very 
popular  and  during  the  years  from  1862  to  1869  was  trav- 
eled by  thousands  of  immigrants  and  freighters.  Over  the 


OREGON  TRAIL  MONUMENT  AT  KEARNEY 


90  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

Denver  Trail  went  the  Pike's  Peak  immigrants  and  the 
supplies  and  machinery  for  opening  the  mines  in  Colorado. 

After  a  few  years  the  mail  and  stage  coach  and  pony  ex- 
press followed  the  immigrant  and  freight  wagons  along  the 
Overland  Trails.  In  1850  the  first  monthly  mail  coaches 
began  running  from  the  Missouri  River  to  Salt  Lake  and 
California.  The  hard  winter  of  1856-57  blocked  this  route 
for  several  months.  The  California  mail  coach  was  then 
placed  on  a  southern  route  through  Arizona  but  with  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  it  was  brought  north  again  and 
in  1861  the  first  daily  overland  mail  began  running  from  the 
Missouri  River  to  California.  This  mail  at  first  started  from 
St.  Joseph.  After  a  few  months  it  ran  from  Atchison,  join- 
ing the  Oregon  Trail  a  few  miles  south  of  the  Nebraska  state 
line  and  following  it  as  far  as  the  crossing  of  the  South  Platte 
near  Julesburg,  where  it  diverged  making  a  new  road,  called 
the  Central  Route,  through  the  mountains  to  Salt  Lake  City. 
This  was  said  to  be  the  greatest  stage  line  in  the  world. 
From  1861  to  1866  daily  coaches  ran  both  ways  except  for  a 
few  months  during  the  Indian  war  in  1864.  Over  this  line 
also  ran  the  pony  express  beginning  April  3,  1860,  and  con- 
tinuing for  eighteen  months  until  the  completion  of  the  tele- 
graph line  to  San  Francisco. 

The  pony  express  was  a  man  on  horseback  carrying  a 
mail  bag  and  riding  as  fast  as  the  horse  could  run.  As  the 
horse  and  man,  covered  with  dust  and  foam,  dashed  into  a 
station  another  man  on  horseback  snatched  the  bag  and 
raced  to  the  next  station.  So  the  bag  of  letters  and  dis- 
patches rushed  day  and  night  across  the  plains  and  moun- 
tains from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The 
quickest  time  ever  made  by  the  pony  express  was  in  March, 
1861,  when  President  Lincoln's  inaugural  address  was  car- 
ried from  St.  Joseph  to  Sacramento,  1980  miles,  in  seven  days 
and  seventeen  hours. 

The  old  overland  trails  fell  out  of  use  with  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  in  1869.  Short  stretches 


THE   OVERLAND   TRAILS 


91 


from  one  settlement  to  another  were  used  as  roads  but 
they  were  no  longer  the  great  highways  of  travel. 
The  sunflower  and  tumble  weed 
settled  in  their  furrows  and  for  many 
years  these  trails  could  be  traced 
across  Nebraska  prairies  by  a  wide 
ribbon.  With  passing  years  the  break- 
ing plow  ran  its  furrows  across  the 
furrows  of  the  wagon  wheels  and  the 
harrow  and  cultivator  smoothed  away 
their  wrinkles  until  over  a  large  part 
of  our  state  the  old  overland  trails 
can  be  traced  only  by  the  records  of 
the  early  surveyors  and  the  recollec- 
tions of  the  few  old-timers.  In  the 
far  western  part  of  Nebraska,  and 
especially  along  the  course  of  "Mie  Ore- 
gon Trail  on  the  south  side  of  the 
North  Platte,  the  old  wagon  tracks 
still  remain  and  the  long  ribbons  of 
sunflowers  still  trace  the  routes  of  the 
old  trails  across  our  country. 


STONE  MARKING  OREGON 

TRAIL  IN  NEBRASKA. 

(From  photograph  by 

Roy  Hindmarsh.) 


QUESTIONS 


1.  How  is  the  best  route  for  a  road  in  a  new  country  found?     Will  it  keep 

near  the  streams  or  on  the  high  land? 

2.  What  differences  in  crossing  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean 

in  the  days  of  the  Oregon  trail  and  now? 

3.  Do  the  lines  of  railroad  follow  the  overland  trails  in  Nebraska?     Why? 

4.  Can  you  find  any  traces  of  the  early  roads  in  your  county? 


LONE  TREE 


LONE  TREE  was  a  solitary  cottonwood  standing  on  the 
north  side  of ,  the  Platte  river  about  three  miles  south- 
west from  where  Central  City  now  is.  Its  massive  trunk, 
ten  or  twelve  feet  in  circumference  at  the  base,  rose  like  a 
column  fifty  feet  in  the  air  and  was  crowned  with  spreading 
branches  which  in  summer  cast  a  grateful  shade.  It  was  a 
landmark  which  could  be  seen  for  twenty  miles  across  the 
level  Platte  valley,  and  the  early  traveler,  viewing  it  afar  off, 
hastened  to  enjoy  its  protection  and  shade. 

The  Indians  knew  the  tree  and  named  it  long  before  the 
white  men  came.  The  legend  is  that  their  chiefs  held  coun- 
cil within  its  shade.  The  first  white  traveler  up  the  Platte 
must  have  noticed  it.  The  overland  trail  on  the  north  side 
of  the  Platte  ran  within  a  few  yards  of  the  tree.  The  great 
emigrant  trains  made  a  camping  ground  near  it  and  hundreds 

of  those  who  passed  that 
way  carved  their  names 
in  its  tough  bark,  climb- 
ing higher  each  year  to 
find  room  for  new  names 
and  initials,  until  its  rug- 
ged trunk  was  covered 
to  the  height  of  thirty 
feet  with  these  inscrip- 
tions. Lone  Tree  ranch 
was  established  in  1858 

LONE    TREE    MONUMENT.     (From   photo-     at  a  little  distance  from 

graph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon.)  the  tree.    Later  the  post 

office  there  and  the  Union  Pacific  station  three  miles 
away  each  bore  its  name.  In  1865  a  great  storm  laid 
the  old  landmark  low,  its  strength  having  been  sapped  by 

92 


LONE  TREE  93 

the  hundreds  of  sharp  knives  which  carved  its  bark.  Part 
of  its  trunk  was  taken  to  Lone  Tree  station,  now  called 
Central  City.  Here  it  stood  on  the  depot  platform  until  it 
was  nearly  all  carried  away  in  fragments  by  tourists. 

Thousands  of  travelers  from  the  East  and  the  West  who 
crossed  the  plains  in  the  early  days  keep  the  old  tree  in  their 
memories,  and  the  early  pioneers  in  the  Platte  valley  remem- 
ber it  as  a  rare  old  friend.  Though  the  old  tree  decayed  un- 
til even  its  stump  is  gone,  it  still  remains  in  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  the  people  who  were  gladdened  by  it  as  it  stood, 
solitary  and  majestic,  by  the  long,  hard,  lonely  trail  in  those 
far  away  days. 

In  the  year  1911  the  people  of  Merrick  County,  through 
their  county  board,  voted  the  money  to  place  a  stone  monu- 
ment made  in  the  likeness  of  a  cottonwood  stump  in  the  place 
where  the  Lone  Tree  once  stood.  There  it  stands  to-day 
in  perpetual  witness  to  the  worth  of  a  tree. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Do  you  know  any  lone  tree?     Are  you  fond  of  it?     Why? 

2.  What  makes  us  like  especially  well  the  lone  tree  of  this  story? 

3.  Were  those  who  cut  names  in  its  bark  kind  to  this  splendid  tree?     Why? 


LOGAN  FONTANELLE 


WHEN  the  white  men  first  came  to  Nebraska  to  live,  a 
hundred  years  ago,  they  found  Indians  everywhere. 
The  Omaha  Indians  lived  a  little  way  from  where  the  city  of 
Omaha  is  located.  One  of  the  white  men  named  Lucien 
Fontanelle,  who  came  up  the  river  from  St.  Louis  to  hunt  and 
trade  with  the  Indians  for  furs,  built  a  log  cabin  on  the  bank 
of  the  Missouri  River  near  the  Omaha  Indian  village.  He 
hunted  and  traded  many  years.  He  visited  with  the  Omaha 
Indians  very  often  and  after  a  time  he  took  an  Omaha  girl 
for  his  wife.  They  lived  for  many  years  more  in  the  log 
cabin  near  the  river  bank.  They  had  four  children,  who 
grew  up  tall  and  strong  and  spoke  two  languages  —  one  the 
Indian  language  which  their  mother  knew  and  the  other  the 

French  language,  for  their 
father  was  a  Frenchman.  They 
played  all  the  summer  long 
under  the  shade  of  the  great 
trees  which  grew  on  the  bank 
of  the  big  river.  Sometimes 
they  went  with  their  mother 's 
Indian  people  away  across  the 
prairies  to  hunt  buffalo.  Such 
sport  as  they  had  on  these 
hunts !  In  the  fall  they  always 
came  back  to  their  home  in 
the  log  cabin  by  the  big  river. 
One  of  the  boys  was  named 
Logan  by  his  father.  He  grew 

to  be  a  very  brave  and  handsome  boy.  He  learned  to 
speak  English  besides  French  and  Omaha.  When  one  of 
the  old  chiefs  died,  Logan,  who  was  then  a  very  young  man, 

94 


LOGAN  FONTANELLE 


LOGAN   FONTANELLE 


95 


was  made  chief  in  his  place.  He  was  the  first  Indian  chief 
in  our  state  who  could  talk  with  the  white  men  just  as  well 
as  a  white  man  and  with  the  Indians  just  as  well  as  an  Indian. 

In  1854  when  more  white  men  began  to  come  across  the 
big  river  and  wanted  to  buy  part  of  the  Indian  land,  Logan 
went  to  Washington  with  the  other  Indian  chiefs,  who  were 
not  able  to  talk  in  the  white  man 's  tongue,  and  helped  them 
to  get  as  much  for  their  land  as  they  could. 

The  Omaha  Indians  and  the  white  men  were  always  at 
peace,  but  there  was  war  between  the  Sioux  and  the  Omahas. 

In  the  summer  of  1855  the  Omaha  Indians  left  their  vil- 
lage by  the  big  river  to  go  out  west  to  hunt  buffalo.  They 
went  along  the  Elkhorn  River  for  two  or  three  days  and  then 
crossed  the  prairie  toward  the  Platte.  They  were  in  what 
is  now  Boone  County  when  the  Sioux  Indians  suddenly 
came  over  the  hills  to  fight.  Then  the  Omaha  women  and 
children  ran  back  to  the  camp  as  fast  as  they  could,  while 
Logan  and  several  other  Omaha  Indians  went  out  to  fight 
the  Sioux.  Logan  had  a  fine,  new  double-barreled  rifle  of 
which  he  was  very  proud.  It  would  shoot  a  great  deal  farther 
than  any  other  gun  in  the  Omaha  tribe.  The  Sioux  had  not 
seen  a  rifle  that  shot 
twice  without  loading 
and  so  were  much  sur- 
prised when  they  found 
.  what  Logan 's  gun  would 
do.  Perhaps  this  is 
what  cost  Logan  his  life. 
He  rode  boldly  out  to- 
ward the  Sioux  and  when 
they  charged  him  he  did 
not  retreat  but  kept  on 
shooting.  Five  or  six  of 
them  mounted  on  their  ponies  made  a  rush  at  him.  He 
killed  three  but  the  others  came  on  and  shot  and  scalped  him. 

Then  there  was  great  sorrow  in  the  camp  of  the  Omahas. 


SITE  OF  FONTANELLE'S  GRAVE  NEAR  BELLE- 
VUE .     (From  photograph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon . ) 


96  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

They  gave  up  their  buffalo  hunt  and  sewed  the  body  of  Lo- 
gan in  an  elk  skin  and  brought  it  on  two  ponies  all  the  way 
back  to  the  Missouri  River.  On  the  top  of  a  little  hill  be- 
tween Omaha  and  Bellevue,  from  which  one  can  look  a  long 
way  up  and  down  the  river,  they  dug  a  grave  and  buried  him. 
All  the  white  men  came  to  the  funeral  and  were  sad.  All  the 
Indians  cried  and  mourned  for  many  days.  His  grave  is 
near  the  little  tree  which  you  can  see  in  the  picture. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Can  you  find  any  part  of  Logan  Fontanelle's  name  on  the  map  of  Nebraska? 

2.  Do  you  think  Logan  Fontanelle  was  more  white  man  than  Indian?     Why? 

3.  Should  the  grave  of  Logan  Fontanelle  have  a  monument? 


THE  MORMON  COW 

IN  the  early  days  the  Sioux  Indians  of  the  plains  were  firm 
friends  of  the  white  people.  The  first  traders  among 
them  were  welcomed  as  brothers.  They  left  their  goods 
piled  in  the  open  air  in  Sioux  villages  and  found  them  safe  on 
their  return.  The  white  men  who  made  the  first  trails 
across  Nebraska  often  found  food  and  shelter  .with  the  Sioux. 
The  early  emigrant  trail  wound  for  four  hundred  miles 
through  the  heart  of  the  Sioux  country.  Over  it  went  white 
men,  singly  and  in  companies,  with  ox-wagons,  on  foot,  and1 
pushing  wheelbarrows  and  no  harm  came  to  them  from  the 
Sioux. 

All  this  was  changed  in  a  single  day.  The  Sioux  became 
the  fierce  and  bloody  foes  of  the  white  men.  War  with  the 
Sioux  nation  lasted  thirty  years.  It  cost  thousands  of  lives 
and  millions  of  dollars.  The  cause  of  this  bloody  war  was  a 
lame  Mormon  cow. 

On  the  17th  of  August,  1854,  a  party  of  Mormon  emi- 
grants on  their  way  to  Great  Salt  Lake  were  toiling  along  the 
Oregon  Trail  in  the  valley  of  the  North  Platte.  They  were 
in  what  was  then  Nebraska  Territory,  but  is  now  about  forty 
miles  beyond  the  Nebraska  state  line  and  eight  miles  east  of 
Fort  Laramie,  Wyoming.  A  great  camp  of  thousands  of 
Indians  stretched  for  miles  along  the  overland  trail.  They 
were  the  Brule,  Oglala  and  Minneconjou  bands  —  the  whole 
Sioux  nation  on  the  plains  —  and  were  gathered  to  receive 
the  goods  which  the  United  States  had  promised  to  pay  them 
for  the  road  through  their  land. 

Behind  the  train  of  Mormon  wagons  lagged  a  lame  cow 
driven  by  a  man.  When  near  the  Brule  Sioux  camp  some- 
thing scared  the  cow.  She  left  the  road  and  ran  directly 
into  the  Sioux  camp.  The  man  ran  after  her,  but  stopped 

97 


98  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

after  a  few  steps,  fearing  to  follow  her  alone  into  a  camp  of  so 
many  Indians.  He  turned  back  to  the  overland  trail  and 
followed  after  the  wagons,  leaving  the  lame  cow  to  visit  the 
Sioux. 

In  the  Brule  camp  was  a  young  Sioux  from  the  Minnecon- 
jou,  or  Shooters-in-the-Mist,  band.  These  were  wilder  than 
the  other  Sioux.  The  young  Minneconjou  killed  the  lame 
cow  and  his  friends  helped  to  eat  her. 

The  next  day  the  Mormon  emigrants  stopped  at  Fort 
Laramie  and  complained  to  the  commander  there  that  they 
had  lost  their  cow.  On  the  morning  of  August  19th,  Lieu- 
tenant Grattan  and  twenty-nine  men  with  two  cannon  were 
sent  from  the  fort  to  the  Brule  camp  after  the  young  Indian 
who  had  killed  the  cow.  Lieutenant  Grattan  was  a  young 
man  from  Vermont,  barely  twenty-one  years  old,  who  had  no 
experience  with  Indians. 

The  great  chief  among  the  Sioux  at  that  time  was  named 
The  Bear.  He  had  a  talk  with  the  lieutenant  and  said  he 
would  try  to  get  the  young  Minneconjou  to  give  himself  up. 
It  was  a  great  disgrace  for  a  free  Indian  of  the  plains  to  be 
taken  to  prison  and  the  friends  of  the  cow-killer  would  not 
let  him  go.  The  Bear  then  tried  to  have  Lieutenant  Grattan 
go  back  to  the  fort  and  let  him  bring  in  the  young  Minnecon- 
jou later.  The  lieutenant  ordered  his  soldiers  to  run  the  two 
cannon  to  the  top  of  a  little  mound,  to  point  them  on  the 
Brule  camp  and  told  The  Bear  that  he  would  open  fire  if  the 
cow-killer  was  not  given  up  at  once.  Pointing  to  the  thou- 
sands of  Indians,  men,  women  and  children,  who  were  spread 
over  the  valley  as  far  as  eye  could  see,  The  Bear  said,  "  These 
are  all  my  people.  Young  man  you  must  be  crazy,"  and 
walked  toward  his  lodge,  while  his  warriors  began  to  get  their 
guns  and  bows.  A  moment  later  the  two  cannon  and  a 
volley  of  muskets  were  fired  at  the  Sioux  camp.  The  Bear 
was  killed.  A  storm  of  Sioux  bullets  and  arrows  cut  down 
Lieutenant  Grattan  and  his  men  before  they  had  time  to 
reload  their  guns. 


THE  MORMON   COW  99 

The  Sioux  camp  went  wild.  The  death  of  The  Bear,  the 
taste  of  white  man 's  blood  set  them  crazy.  Warriors  mount- 
ed their  ponies  and  rode  about  the  field.  The  squaws  tore 
down  the  tepees  and  packed  them  for  flight.  Some  one 
called  out  to  the  Indians  to  take  their  goods  which  were  in  a 
storehouse  near  a  trader 's  post  waiting  for  the  United  States 
officer  who  was  coming  to  distribute  them.  The  Sioux  burst 
into  the  storehouse,  tumbled  the  goods  from  the  shelves, 
piled  them  on  their  ponies.  There  were  two  traders  near 
by  who  were  married  to  Indian  women.  Their  friends 
hurried  them  out  of  sight  to  keep  them  from  being  killed  by 
the  furious  warriors.  Before  sundown  the  Indians  were  rid- 
ing over  the  northern  ridges  by  thousands,  carrying  away 
their  plunder.  They  buried  The  Bear  wrapped  in  richest 
buffalo  robes  in  a  high  pine  tree  near  the  Niobrara  River. 
From  this  burial  the  bands  scattered  over  Nebraska,  Wyo- 
ming and  Dakota,  urging  Indians  everywhere  to  kill  the 
white  men  and  to  drive  them  from  the  country.  Thus  the 
Sioux  war  began. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Ought  the  Indians  to  have  given  up  the  cow-killer? 

2.  What  should  Lieutenant  Grattan  have  done? 

3.  Were  the  Indians  or  the  white  men  to  blame  for  bringing  on  the  Sioux 

war? 


SLAVERY  IN  NEBRASKA 

THE  South  and  North  fell  out  over  slavery  in  the  new 
land  of  the  West.  The  people  of  the  South  wanted  the 
right  to  go  west  and  take  their  slaves  with  them.  The  people 
of  the  North  wanted  none  but  free  people  in  the  West.  In 
1820  the  North  and  South  agreed  that  Missouri  might  be  a 
slave  state,  but  that  there  should  be  no  slaves  in  what  is 
now  Nebraska  and  Kansas.  This  was  called  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  No  one  then  lived  in  Nebraska  but  Indians 
and  a  few  traders,  trappers  and  soldiers.  When  it  was  time 
for  Nebraska  to  be  settled  and  to  have  a  government  there 
was  another  fierce  falling  out  between  the  South  and  the 
North  over  slavery.  This  time  a  law  was  passed  to  the 
effect  that  the  new  land  should  be  slave  or  free  as  the 
settlers  voted. 

In  Nebraska  the  people  never  voted  for  slavery,  but 
people  coming  here  from  the  South  brought  slaves  with  them. 
In  1855  there  were  thirteen  slaves  in  Nebraska  and  in  1860 
there  were  ten.  Most  of  these  were  held  at  Nebraska  City. 

Across  the  Missouri  River  at  Tabor,  Iowa,  was  a  settle- 
ment of  people  called  abolitionists,  because  they  wished  to 
abolish  slavery.  The  " Underground  Railroad"  was  the 
name  given  to  the  road  taken  by  slaves  from  the  South  on 
their  way  through  the  North  to  Canada,  where  they  were  free. 
One  branch  of  this  road  ran  from  Missouri  through  the  cor- 
ner of  Nebraska  by  way  of  Falls  City,  Little  Nemaha,  Camp 
Creek  and  Nebraska  City  to  Tabor.  The  runaway  slaves 
traveled  at  night  along  this  road  and  were  fed  and  hidden 
during  the  day  by  friends.  At  Falls  City  they  were  kept  in 
a  barn.  John  Brown  came  through  this  corner  of  Nebraska 
very  often  with  slaves  from  Missouri  whom  he  was  helping 
to  set  free.  He  is  the  man  of  whom  we  sing 

100 


SLAVERY  IN  NEBRASKA 


101 


"John  Brown's  body  lies  a-mould 'ring  in  the  grave, 
His  soul  is  marching  on!" 

In  November,  1858,  Eliza,  a  slave  girl  owned  by  Mr.  S.  F. 
Nuckolls  at  Nebraska  City,  ran  away,  and  with  her  another 
slave  girl.  Mr.  Nuckolls  (after  whom  Nuckolls  County  was 


ACT  ABOLISHING  SLAVERY  IN  NEBRASKA.   (Photo  from  original  in  Statehotise.) 

named)  was  very  angry  and  offered  $200  reward.  With  the 
aid  of  the  United  States  marshal  he  began  a  search  of  the 
houses  at  Tabor  for  his  slaves.  The  girls  were  not  there,  but 
one  man  whose  house  was  being  searched  was  struck  on  the 
head  by  an  officer  and  badly  wounded.  For  this  Mr. 
Nuckolls  had  to  pay  $10,000  damages.  Eliza  escaped  to 


102  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

Chicago,  where  she  was  arrested  the  next  year  and  was  about 
to  be  returned  to  her  master  when  a  mob  rescued  her  and 
she  was  hurried  over  to  Canada.  Mr.  Nuckolls  sued  sixteen 
Iowa  people  for  helping  Eliza  to  escape,  but  the  war  soon 
came  on  and  he  did  not  win  his  suit. 

The  few  slaves  in  Nebraska  were  hard  to  hold.  On  June 
30,  1860,  six  slaves  owned  by  Alexander  Majors  at  Nebraska 
City  ran  away  and  never  came  back.  On  December  5,  1860, 
the  sheriff  of  Otoe  County  sold  at  auction  in  the  streets  of 
Nebraska  City  one  negro  man  and  one  negro  woman,  known 
as  Hercules  and  Martha.  This  was  the  last  of  slavery  in 
Nebraska,  for  in  January,  1861,  the  legislature  passed  an  act 
abolishing  slavery  in  the  territory. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  If  the  land  in  Nebraska  belonged  equally  to  all  the  United  States  which 

was  right  regarding  its  use,  the  South  or  the  North? 

2.  Was  it  right  for  the  northern  people  to  help  slaves  to  run  away  from  their 

masters? 

3.  Would  Nebraska  to-day  be  a  slave  state  if  the  southern  people  had  been 

freely  allowed  to  bring  slaves  here? 


TERRITORY 


THE  first  settlers  in  Nebraska  found  no  corners  nor  lines 
marking  the  limits  of  their  land.  The  early  Indian 
traders,  like  Manuel  Lisa  and  Henry  Fontanelle,  built  their 
cabins  and  put  in  their  crops  wherever  it  pleased  them,  for 
all  land  lay  open  to  their  use.  The  early  territorial  pioneer 
of  1854  and  1855  staked  out  his  own  land,  claiming  what 
suited  him  best,  and  put 
up  signs  telling  all  who 
came  that  way  what  he 
claimed. 

The  first  Nebraska 
surveyor  was  Rev.  Isaac 
McCoy,  a  Baptist  mis- 
sionary who,  in  1837, 
surveyed  a  line  across 
the  southeast  corner  of 
the  state  from  the  Little 
Nemaha  River  to  the 
Great  Nemaha  River  in 
what  is  now  Richardson 
County.  The  land  be- 
tween this  line  and  the 
Missouri  River  was 
called  the  Half  Breed 
Strip.  It  was  to  be  the 
home  of  those  who  were 
part  white  and  part  In- 
dian. In  later  years  there  were  many  disputes  over  the 
location  of  this  first  Nebraska  survey. 

Surveyors  were  needed  as  soon  as  Nebraska  became  a 
territory  to  divide  the  land  into  blocks  marked  with  perma- 

103 


MAP  SHOWING  FIRST  PLAN  FOR  NEBRASKA 

SURVEY  1854.     (Drawing  by  Miss 

Martha  Turner.) 


104  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

nent  corners,  so  that  each  settler  might  know  just  where  his 
land  lay  and  the  whole  country  might  be  made  easy  to  map 
and  easy  to  describe.  The  regular  permanent  survey  of 
Nebraska  into  square  blocks  of  land  for  people's  homes  be- 
gan in  November,  1854.  First  a  base  line  was  measured 
west  from  the  Missouri  River  108  miles,  with  corner  posts 
marking  each  mile.  This  line  was  ordered  to  be  exactly  on 
the  40th  degree  of  latitude  north  from  the  equator,  the  divid- 
ing line  between  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  but  the  first  surveyor 
did  not  know  his  business  and  the  line  was  crooked,  some- 
times on  one  side  of  the  40th  degree  and  sometimes  on  the 
other.  So  the  next  year  this  base  line  had  to  be  re-surveyed, 
the  first  corners  torn  out  and  new  ones  put  in.  This  new 
survey  was  made  by  Mr.  Charles  A.  Manners.  With  the  help 
of  Captain  Thomas  J.  Lee  of  the  United  States  Army  and  the 
best  instruments  obtainable,  very  careful  observations  were 
made  of  the  sun  and  the  stars  in  order  to  find  where  the  40th 
degree  of  latitude  fell  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Missouri  River. 
On  this  spot,  on  May  8,  1855,  the  surveyors  put  up  a  tall 
iron  monument  with  the  word  "Nebraska"  on  one  side  and 
"Kansas"  on  the  opposite  side.  This  monument  stands  to- 
day on  a  high  bluff  overlooking  the  Missouri  valley  and  is 
the  starting  point  of  all  the  Nebraska  surveys. 

From  this  iron  monument  the  base  line  was  surveyed  due 
west  108  miles.  At  this  point  another  monument  was  put 
up.  The  line  surveyed  due  north  from  here  is  called  the 
sixth  principal  meridian  of  the  United  States  surveys  and  is 
the  "naming  line"  of  all  the  land  in  Nebraska,  for  all  deeds 
and  patents  to  Nebraska  land  mention  it.  This  line  forms 
the  western  boundary  of  Jefferson,  Saline,  Seward,  Butler, 
Colfax,  Stanton  and  Wayne  counties  and  extends  through 
Cedar  County  to  the  northern  boundary  of  the  state. 

The  orders  for  the  survey  of  Nebraska  called  for  a  division 
of  the  land  into  blocks  six  miles  square  called  townships. 
Each  township  was  divided  into  blocks  one  mile  square  called 
sections.  All  the  townships  in  Nebraska  are  numbered,  be- 


THE  SURVEYORS 


105 


ginning  with  number  one  at  the  base  line  and  ending  with 
number  thirty-five  at  the  northern  boundary.  Each  row  of 
townships  stretching  across  the  state  from  south  to  north 
is  called  a  range.  The  ranges  are 
counted  from  the  sixth  principal 
meridian,  the  first  range  of  townships 
east  being  called  range  one  east,  the 
first  range  west  being  called  range 
one  west  and  so  on.  There  are  nine- 
teen ranges  east  and  fifty-nine  ranges 
west  in  Nebraska. 

At  distances  forty-eight  miles  east 
and  west  from  the  sixth  principal 
meridian  guide  meridians  were  laid 
off.  This  was  necessary  because 
the  surface  of  the  earth  is  curved  in- 
stead of  flat.  If  you  will  take  a  ball 
and  lay  off  its  surface  into  square 
blocks  of  uniform  size,  as  the  survey- 
ors laid  off  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
you  will  see  why  these  guide  merid- 
ians were  needed.  In  a  similar 
way  standard  parallels  were  run  at 
each  interval  of  twenty-four  miles  north  from  the  base  line. 
The  surveyors  made  the  survey  by  running  a  line  due  north 
from  the  base  line  twenty-four  miles,  then  due  east  forty- 
eight  miles  to  the  meridian.  The  block  of  land  thus  laid  off 
was  subdivided  into  townships  and  sections  by  marking  the 
corners  of  each  township  and  each  section  with  stakes  or 
stones  set  in  a  mound  of  earth  and  four  holes  dug  so  as  to 
form  a  square  figure  with  the  mound  in  the  center.  In 
pioneer  times,  the  gray  wolf  or  the  coyote  sitting  upon  one  of 
these  mounds  would  howl  through  the  long  hours  of  the 
night.  On  the  section  line  half-way  between  the  section 
corners  was  placed  what  is  called  a  "  Quarter  Stake." 

Beginning  thus  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  state,  the 


NEBRASKA-KANSAS   MONU- 
MENT, STARTING  POINT  OF 
NEBRASKA  SURVEYS. 
(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha 
Turner.) 


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BASE  LWE 


?— -! L ---4.-..  -. 

lj__[_1_ 


/    a  m  iv    v 


3X1  JEQ  JCCZZ7 


106 


THE  SURVEYORS  107 

surveys  were  each  year  pushed  a  little  farther  west  and 
north,  in  the  direction  most  likely  to  be  taken  by  the  settlers 
as  they  came  in,  until  all  the  state  was  surveyed.  The  last 
survey  thus  made  was  the  " Gates  of  Sheridan"  reservation 
in  Sheridan  County,  which  was  finished  in  1910,  fifty-six  years 
after  the  first  survey  was  made. 

Each  surveying  party  kept  a  book  called  a  field  notebook 
in  which  was  to  be  written  down  each  day  the  distances 
measured,  a  description  of  the  surface  of  the  country,  all 
prominent  natural  objects  seen,  the  quality  of  the  land,  the 
corners  marked  and  how  they  were  marked,  in  a  word  the 
entire  story  of  things  done  and  seen  each  day.  From  these 
field  notes  maps  were  made,  showing  all  the  streams,  hills, 
valleys,  smooth  and  rough  land,  and  copies  of  these  maps  were 
kept  at  the  land  offices  where  the  settlers  went  to  file  their 
claims  upon  land.  Some  of  the  surveys  were  dishonestly 
made,  the  corners  not  marked  as  required  by  law  and  the 
field  notes  not  truthfully  kept,  so  that  settlers  in  some  cases 
lost  their  homes  or  located  on  the  wrong  piece  of  land  or  were 
unable  to  find  the  government  corners. 

Great  dangers  and  hardships  were  braved  by  the  pioneer 
surveyors.  The  Indians  everywhere  understood  when  they 
saw  the  surveying  parties  making  mounds,  driving  stakes 
and  digging  holes,  that  the  white  men  were  coming  to  take 
their  land.  In  many  cases  they  pulled  up  their  stakes,  tore 
down  the  mounds  and  drove  off  the  surveyors.  Great 
storms  swept  down  upon  the  surveyors  living  in  tents,  and 
men  and  horses  were  frozen  to  death.  Fever  and  ague  was 
common  in  the  surveying  camps.  In  surveying  the  islands 
of  the  Platte  River  the  men  waded  through  water  for  weeks. 
Upon  the  high  plains  of  western  Nebraska  they  were  tortured 
with  thirst.  Mosquitoes,  gnats  and  green-headed  flies 
pursued  them,  eager  for  blood  by  day  and  by  night.  Some- 
times the  Indians  set  fire  to  the  prairie  and  drove  the  survey- 
ing parties  in  because  their  horses  found  no  grass  to  eat. 
The  saddest  day  in  all  the  surveys  of  Nebraska  was  August 


108 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


20,  1869,  when  a  band  of  Sioux  Indians  under  Pawnee  Killer 
and  Whistler  attacked  the  Nelson  Buck  surveying  party  of 
ten  men  in  the  Republican  Valley  and  killed  the  entire 

party.  There  was  not  a 
single  season  from  1863  un- 
til 1877  when  the  surveyors 
did  not  have  to  fight  the 
Indians,  and  for  many  years 
later  all  surveying  parties 
carried  rifles  along  with 
their  instruments  and  often 
saved  their  lives  thereby. 

The  United  States  sur- 
veys of  Nebraska  are  ended. 
All  the  field  notebooks  and 
the  township  maps  of  the 
surveys  are  turned  over  to 
the  State  of  Nebraska  and 
kept  in  a  fireproof  vault  by 
the  state  surveyor  in  the 
Capitol  building.  The  let- 
ters written  by  the  survey- 
ors in  the  field,  telling  the 
story  of  their  trials  and  dan- 
gers are  there  bound  in  vol- 
umes for  future  Nebraskans  to  read.  All  the  titles  to  all  the 
lands  and  lots  in  Nebraska  rest  finally  upon  the  record  of 
these  surveys.  Land  in  Nebraska  grows  more  valuable  from 
year  to  year  and  these  records  are  called  for  so  that  surveyors 
to-day  may  follow  the  field  notes  of  these  first  surveyors,  re- 
trace their  lines  and  locate  the  true  corners  where  land  is  in 
dispute.  So  long  as  men  live  and  occupy  the  land,  so  long 
will  the  surveys  of  Nebraska  and  the  records  of  them  be 
first  in  importance  to  them. 


ROBERT  HARVEY,  AN  EARLY  SURVEYOR, 

AND  OUTFIT.     (From  photograph 

collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


THE  SURVEYORS  109 


QUESTIONS 

1.  What  are  the  numbers  of  the  land  where  you  live  and  how  do  you  know? 

2.  Find  all  the  government  corners  in  the  section  where  you  live  and  tell 

how  they  are  marked?     Are  the  marks  you  find  the  ones  put  there  by 
the  United  States  surveyors? 

3.  How  do  surveyors  to-day  retrace  the  work  of  the  first  United  States  sur- 

veyors and  settle  disputes  over  land? 


THE  FIRST  HOMESTEAD 

THE  free  homestead  law  has  been  called  the  most  impor- 
tant act  for  the  welfare  of  the  people  ever  passed  in  the 
United  States.  Under  this  law  any  man  or  woman  twenty- 
one  years  old  or  the  head  of  a  family  can  have  160  acres  of 
land  by  living  on  it  five  years  and  paying  about  eighteen 
dollars  in  fees.  For  the  first  eighty  years  of  United  States 
history  there  were  no  free  homesteads.  The  settlers  were 
obliged  to  buy  their  land.  The  price  was  low  but  they  were 
often  very  poor  and  in  many  cases  lost  their  land  after  living 
upon  and  improving  it  because  they  had  no  money  to  pay 
for  it. 

In  1852  a  party,  called  the  Free  Soil  party,  demanded  free 
homesteads  for  the  people.  In  1854  the  first  free  homestead 
bill  was  introduced  in  Congress  by  Congressman  Galusha  A. 
Grow  of  Pennsylvania.  The  people  of  the  West  and  poor 
people  everywhere  were  in  favor  of  the  bill.  There  was 
strong  opposition  to  it,  however.  The  first  homestead  act 
required  the  settler  to  pay  twenty-five  cents  an  acre  for  his 
land  and  was  passed  in  1860.  This  bill  was  vetoed  by  Presi- 
dent Buchanan.  It  was  not  until  May  20,  1862,  that  the 
free  homestead  act  was  finally  passed  and  signed  by  Presi- 
dent Abraham  Lincoln.  The  law  took  effect  on  January  1, 
1863. 

The  first  free  homestead  in  the  United  States  was  taken 
by  Daniel  Freeman  on  Cub  Creek  in  Gage  County,  Nebras- 
ka, about  five  miles  northwest  of  Beatrice.  Daniel  Freeman 
was  born  in  Ohio  in  1826,  and  moved  with  his  parents  to 
Illinois  in  1835.  He  was  intensely  interested  in  the  free 
homestead  bill  from  the  time  it  was  first  introduced  in  Con- 
gress. Year  after  year  he  watched  its  progress  and  hoped 
for  its  passage  and  many  times  said  that  he  wished  to  be  the 

110 


THE  FIRST  HOMESTEAD 


111 


first  man  to  take  a  homestead.  When  the  free  homestead 
bill  was  signed  Daniel  Freeman  was  a  soldier  in  the  Union 
army.  A  few  months  later  he  was  given  a  brief  furlough  and 
came  to  Nebraska  to  look  over  the 
beautiful  country,  then  lying  va- 
cant, for  a  home.  He  found  the 
place  that  suited  him  and  started 
for  the  nearest  United  States  land 
office,  which  was  then  at  Brown- 
ville,  Nebraska,  arriving  there  De- 
cember 31,  1862.  The  little  town 
was  thronged  with  settlers  who  had 
come  there  to  take  land.  That  night 
there  was  a  New  Year's  Eve  party 
at  the  hotel,  which  was  attended  by 
all.  The  new  homestead  act  was  to 
go  into  effect  the  next  day  but  as 
New  Year's  was  a  holiday  the  land 
office  would  not  be  open  until  Jan- 
uary 2d.  Mr.  Freeman  was  under 
orders  to  join  his  regiment  and  expected  to  leave  the  next 
day.  He  told  his  story  and  his  great  desire  to  be  the  first 
homesteader  in  the  United  States.  All  the  others  agreed 
that  he  should  have  the  first  chance  and  with  him  per- 
suaded a  clerk  in  the  land  office  to  open  the  office  a  few 
minutes  past  midnight  on  January  1st  for  Daniel  Freeman 
alone. 

Thus  it  came  that  Daniel  Freeman  made  homestead  entry 
number  one  and  afterwards  received  homestead  patent  num- 
ber one  for  160  acres  on  Cub  Creek  near  Beatrice.  Thus 
Nebraska  has  the  honor  of  having  the  first  homestead  in  the 
United  States.  Since  that  time  over  1,000,000  homesteaders 
have  followed  Daniel  Freeman's  example,  receiving  over 
120,000,000  acres  of  land  as  a  free  gift  from  our  government. 
Of  these  homesteaders  over  100,000  have  lived  in  Nebraska. 
Nothing  has  helped  so  much  in  the  settlement  of  the  West  as 


DANIEL  FREEMAN,  FIRST 
HOMESTEADER  IN  UNIT- 
ED STATES 


112  STORIES   OF  NEBRASKA 

its  free  lands.     One  of  the  songs  sung  everywhere  after  the 
passage  of  the  homestead  act  had  for  its  refrain  these  words: 

"Come  along,  come  along,  make  no  delay, 
Come  from  every  nation,  come  from  every  way, 
Our  lands  they  are  broad  enough,  have  no  alarm 
For  Uncle  Sam  is  rich  enough  to  give  us  all  a  farm." 

Daniel  Freeman  served  his  country  in  the  Union  army 
until  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  in  1865.     Then  he  brought 


THE  FIRST  HOMESTEAD.     (From  photograph  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 

his  bride  and  settled  on  his  Nebraska  homestead.  This  has 
remained  ever  since  the  family  home.  Here  their  seven 
children  grew  to  manhood  and  womanhood  and  here  Mrs. 
Freeman  lives  with  children  and  grandchildren. 

Mr.  Freeman  died  December  30,  1908.  This  first  home- 
stead is  a  beautiful  farm  in  the  valley  where  the  prairie  and 
timber  land  join.  The  old  log  cabin  with  sod  roof,  which  was 
the  first  home  of  the  Freeman  family,  has  long  since  disap- 
peared. There  is  a  brick  house  and  orchard,  and  an  old 
freighting  road,  from  Missouri  River  to  the  mountains  runs 
for  nearly  a  mile  through  the  place,  with  rows  of  giant  cotton- 
woods  planted  by  Mr.  Freeman  on  either  side.  On  the  hill 
at  one  corner  of  the  farm,  overlooking  the  valley  and  the 


THE  FIRST  HOMESTEAD  113 

freighting  road,  is  the  grave  of  Daniel  Freeman.  It  is  pro- 
posed that  the  United  States  shall  purchase  this  first  home- 
stead from  the  Freeman  family  and  make  it  a  public  park  to 
commemorate  what  is  regarded  as  the  most  important  law 
passed  by  the  United  States  and  the  place  where  that  law  was 
first  applied. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  is  the  free  homestead  law  called  the  best  law  for  the  people  in  the 

United  States? 

2.  What  was  the  reason  Daniel  Freeman  got  the  first  homestead? 

3.  What  is  it  worth  to  Nebraska  to  have  the  first  homestead  within  its 

borders? 


THE  PAWNEES 


THE  Pawnee  nation  lived  in  Nebraska  for  many  years 
before  the  first  white  men  came.  Their  traditions  say 
that  a  long  time  ago  they  came  from  the  Southwest,  perhaps 
from  the  borders  of  Mexico.  Through  hundreds  of  years 
they  were  slowly  moving  northward.  When  the  first  white 
men  found  them,  over  two  hundred  years  ago,  what  is  now 
the  Nebraska  country  was  their  home.  The  Pawnee  nation 
was  divided  into  four  tribes,  each  of  which  had  an  Indian 
name  and  a  white  man 's  name :  Chau-i,  Grand ;  Kitke-hahk-i, 
Republican;  Pita-hau-erat,  Noisy;  Ski-di,  Wolf.  These 
tribes  were  divided  into  bands,  each  of  which  lived  in  a 
group  of  houses  and  kept  together  on  the  march  and  in  the 
village. 

The  Pawnees  were  the  most  advanced  in  culture  of  any  of 
the  Nebraska  Indians.  In  farming,  in  handiwork,  in  medi- 
cine, in  music  and  religion  they  had  made  remarkable  prog- 
ress and  were  imitated 
by  the  other  Indians. 
They  built  large  circular 
houses,  called  earth 
lodges,  with  walls  of  dirt 
and  a  roof  supported  by 
trunks  of  large  trees  set 
upright  inside  of  the 
walls,  the  whole  covered 
with  poles,  grass  and  sod. 

PAWNEE  EARTH  LODGE.     (From  photograph      ®n  tne  east  s^e  was  a 

by  A .  E.  Sheldon.)  covered  entrance  and  on 

the  west  were  the  sacred  bundle  and  buffalo  skull.  There  was 
a  hole  in  the  center  of  the  roof  to  let  out  the  smoke.  The 
people  slept  around  the  edge  of  the  circle  made  by  the  walls 

114 


THE  PAWNEES 


115 


ANCIENT  PAWNEE  POTTERY 


and  gathered  about  the  lodge  fire  in  the  center  to  eat  and 
talk.  Such  houses  were  warm  in  the  coldest  weather.  The 
sod  houses  of  the  early  white  settlers  were  like  them  in  struc- 
ture, but  not  in  shape.  In  some 
places  Pawnees  built  sod  walls 
around  their  village  to  protect  it 
from  enemies. 

In  the  rich,  moist  valleys  near 
the  rivers,  the  Pawnee  women 
raised  crops  of  corn,  beans,  pump- 
kins, squashes  and  melons.  They 
gathered  roots  from  the  prairie  and 
wild  fruit  from  the  bushes  and  dried 
them  for  winter  use.  Twice. a  year 
the  tribe  went  on  buffalo  hunts,  leaving  their  villages  de- 
serted except  for  the  men  and  women  too  old  to  go  on  the 
hunt.  Thus  they  made  part  of  their  living  by  the  chase  and 
part  by  farming,  very  much  as  did  our  forefathers,  the  Ger- 
mans, in  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar. 

Before  the  white  men  came  the  Pawnees  made  their  own 
tools  and  weapons  out  of  wood,  flint  and  stone,  chipping  the 
flint  into  sharp  points  for  their  arrow  and  spear  heads  and 
making  hammers  and  axes  out  of  stones.  For  hoes  they  tied, 
with  strings  of  rawhide,  the  sharp  shoulder  blades  of  buffa- 
loes to  sticks.  They  also  made  many  kinds  of  pottery  and 
thousands  of  pieces  are  found  on  the  sites  of  their  old  towns  in 
our  state. 

The  rulers  of  the  Pawnees  were  chiefs.  Sometimes  a  man 
came  to  be  chief  because  his  father  was  chief,  and  sometimes 
the  son  of  a  common  man  who  proved  to  be  wise,  brave  and 
fortunate  in  war  and  in  hunting  became  chief.  A  chief  who 
did  not  have  these  qualities  soon  lost  his  power.  There  was 
a  head  chief  of  the  tribe,  a  council  composed  of  other  chiefs, 
and  besides  these  an  assembly  of  the  whole  people,  as  there 
were  among  the  early  Germans,  to  decide  what  should  be 
done  in  important  matters. 


116  STORIES   OF  NEBRASKA 

The  Pawnees  were  a  very  religious  people.  They  be- 
lieved in  spirits,  ghosts,  fairies,  and  enchanted  animals  and 
in  magical  places  where  strange  things  were  done.  Above 
all  these  they  believed  in  Tirawa,  the  father,  who  lived  in  the 
sky,  who  made  all  the  people  and  who  sent  the  corn,  the 
buffalo,  the  rain,  the  sunshine  and  all  other  good  things. 
If  the  people  did  as  he  wished  they  had  good  fortune  and 
were  happy.  To  gain  the  good  will  of  the  spirits  there  were 
dances,  ceremonies,  songs  and  sacrifices.  There  were  special 
ceremonies  and  songs  to  secure  the  favor  of  Tirawa  for  every 
important  event  in  the  life  of  the  Pawnees,  the  first  thunder 
in  the  spring,  the  planting  of  corn,  the  start  on  a  buffalo 
hunt,  the  return  of  a  war  party.  Sacred  bundles  were  kept 
in  the  lodges  which  held  magical  feathers  and  bones  and 
other  mysterious  things.  These  were  brought  out  for  the 
great  ceremonies. 

Singers  made  many  songs  for  their  special  occasions. 
Story-tellers  told  many  stories  of  the  deeds  of  their  young 
men  and  of  ghosts  and  spirits  and  animals.  In  all  these 
things  the  Pawnees  were  very  skilful  and  their  songs  and 
stories  were  famous  among  Indians  everywhere.  These 
were  handed  down  from  the  old  to  the  young  until  there  were 
very  many  of  them.  Other  tribes  have  borrowed  and  copied 
a  great  deal  from  the  Pawnee  stories  and  songs. 

Medicine  men  had  great  power  and  influence  among  the 
Pawnees.  Wonderful  tales  are  told  of  the  things  done  by 
them,  such  as  raising  in  a  few  hours  a  full  grown  stalk  of  corn 
from  a  dry  kernel,  shaking  a  live  fawn  from  a  deerskin,  mak- 
ing plums  and  cherries  grow  out  of  twigs,  striking  people  dead 
with  tomahawks  and  restoring  them  to  life  in  a  few  minutes. 
White  people  who  saw  some  of  these  wonderful  feats  were 
unable  to  explain  them.  Among  the  Indians  themselves  the 
mystery  and  magic  of  the  Pawnee  medicine  men  made  them 
both  courted  and  feared. 

The  Skidi  tribe  of  the  Pawnee  nation  was  the  largest  and 
most  warlike.  It  kept  up  the  old  customs  longer  than  any 


THE  PAWNEES  117 

other  tribe,  among  them  the  custom  of  offering  human  sacri- 
fice to  the  morning  star.  Prisoners  taken  in  war  were  offered 
in  these  sacrifices  in  order  to  gain  the  favor  of  the  god  and 
bring  good  luck  to  the  tribe.  The  last  sacrifice  of  this  kind 
known  took  place  sixty  or  seventy  years  ago.  There  are  old 
Pawnees  who  say  that  they  saw  it.  The  Pawnees  often  kept 
prisoners  as  slaves  and  other  tribes  held  captured  Pawnees 
as  their  slaves.  There  was  also  a  custom  among  the  Pawnees 
by  which  young  men  and  boys  who  had  as  yet  made  no  name 
for  themselves  by  their  deeds,  lived  as  servants  in  the  families 
of  chiefs.  Here  they  were  fed  and  lodged  and  in  their  turn 
did  all  kinds  of  errands,  such  as  caring  for  the  horses  and 
carrying  messages.  Older  men  who  had  not  made  a  success 
in  life  lived  in  the  same  way,  receiving  support  and  protec- 
tion from  the  chief  in  payment  for  their  services.  In  all  this 
the  Pawnee  custom  was  very  much  like  that  of  the  feudal 
system  in  Europe  when  the  common  people  served  the  lords 
and  knights. 

The  Pawnee  nation  as  a  whole  was  never  at  war  with  the 
white  people.  At  times  some  of  the  young  Pawnees  had 
trouble  with  the  settlers  over  stock.  The  so-called  Pawnee 
war  of  1859  was  to  punish  a  few  such  thieves.  Pawnee  men, 
women  and  children  were  frequent  visitors  in  the  homes  of 
early  Nebraska  settlers  and  a  Pawnee  camp  near  a  ranch 
served  as  a  protection  against  hostile  Sioux  and  Cheyenne. 

All  the  other  Indian  tribes  of  the  plains  were  at  war  with 
the  Pawnees.  Sometimes  peace  would  be  made  for  a  short 
time,  but  through  the  years  the  larger  tribes  of  the  plains, 
the  Comanches,  the  Cheyennes,  the  Utes,  the  Arapahoes 
and  especially  the  Sioux,  were  the  constant  and  bitter  enemies 
of  the  Pawnees.  Always  at  war  with  these  great  tribes  about 
them,  it  is  little  wonder  that  the  Pawnees  became  fewer  in 
number. 

One  hundred  years  ago  the  Pawnee  people  were  estimated 
to  number  10,000.  The  Republican,  or  Kitkehahki  tribe 
had  villages  on  the  Republican  River  near  Hardy,  and  near 


118  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

Red  Cloud.  The  other  three  tribes  lived  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Platte  and  Loups.  Graves  and  lodge  circles  extend  for  many 
miles  near  Linwood,  in  Butler  County,  Osceola  in  Polk 
County  and  Leshara  in  Saunders  County,  marking  the  sites 
of  Pawnee  villages  south  of  the  Platte.  In  the  North  Platte 
region  the  valleys  of  the  Loups  and  of  Shell  Creek  in  Colfax, 
Platte,  Merrick,  Nance  and  Howard  counties  are  thickly 
dotted  with  remains  of  Pawnee  villages. 

By  a  treaty  with  the  United  States  in  1833  the  Pawnee 
nation  ceded  all  its  country  south  of  the  Platte  and  agreed 
to  move  up  on  the  Loups.  A  part  went,  but  in  1846  the 
Sioux  burned  one  of  their  villages  there  and  the  Pawnees 
came  down  the  Platte,  making  their  homes  near  Bellevue  and 
Fremont. 

In  1849,  the  cholera  swept  away  nearly  1200  Pawnees  and 
every  year  their  enemies,  the  Sioux,  made  raids  upon  them, 
so  that  their  women  hardly  dared  to  hoe  in  the  fields  of  corn. 

In  1857,  the  Pawnee  nation  ceded  to  the  United  States 
all  its  country  north  of  the  Platte  except  a  reservation,  now 
Nance  County,  on  the  Loup,  and  in  1859  the  entire  nation, 
then  numbering  between  3,000  and  4,000  people,  moved 
there. 

For  the  next  fourteen  years  the  once  proud  Pawnees  led 
a  life  of  misfortune  and  disaster.  The  Sioux  raided  their 
villages.  The  white  men  coveted  their  beautiful  tract  of 
land  and  urged  the  government  to  remove  them.  Grass- 
hoppers and  drought  ruined  their  crops.  Buffalo  became 
scarce  and  could  be  found  only  by  long  journeys  to  the  Re- 
publican River,  in  the  country  of  their  enemies,  the  Sioux. 
Finally  in  1873,  a  party  of  Pawnees  hunting  buffalo  were 
surprised  by  the  Sioux  near  Culbertson  in  Hitchcock  County 
and  eighty-six  were  killed. 

Many  of  the  Pawnees  now  desired  to  move  to  the  Indian 
Territory  and  live  near  the  Wichita  tribe,  who  are  near  rel- 
atives. In  1873  a  party  of  300  went  south  and  wintered. 
In  1874,  1,500  men,  women  and  children  left  Nebraska  and 


THE  PAWNEES  119 

reached  the  Indian  Territory  in  February,  1875.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1875,  those  left  in  Nebraska  joined  them,  making  a  total 
of  2,200,  all  that  remained  of  the  Pawnee  nation. 

For  a  number  of  years  after  this  the  Pawnees  died  very 
rapidly.  They  had  left  a  land  of  clear  flowing  rivers,  bright 
skies  and  cool  dry  climate.  They  went  to  a  land  where  the 
climate  was  hot  and  damp,  biting  insects  of  all  kinds  abound- 
ed, and  the  water  in  the  streams  flowed  red  as  blood  from  the 
red  soil  through  which  it  passed.  For  a  time  it  seemed  that 
the  whole  nation  would  quickly  disappear. 

The  Pawnee  reservation  is  now  a  part  of  Oklahoma  and 
the  remainder  of  the  nation  living  there  number  653.  They 
never  cease  telling  stories  of  the  old  times  and  the  old  home 
in  Nebraska.  To  their  children  Nebraska  is  a  wonderland, 
full  of  magical  places,  the  scenes  of  heroic  battles  and  strange 
events  in  their  history,  some  of  which  are  related  in  the  pages 
of  this  book. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  How  long  and  how  accurately  are  stories  of  old  times  kept  by  people  who 

do  not  know  how  t)  write  and  read? 

2.  Why  were  the  sod  houses  of  the  early  settlers  different  in  shape  from  the 

Indian  earth  lodge? 

3.  Do  white  men  in  Nebraska  select  their  chiefs  in  the  same  way  as  the 

Pawnees  did? 

4.  How  did  the  medicine  men  learn  their  art? 

5.  Which  Pawnee  customs  and  beliefs  were  different  from  those  of  white 

men?     Which  were  like  the  white  men's  customs? 

6.  Why  do  you  think  the  other  tribes  fought  the  Pawnees? 

7.  Do  you  wish  the  Pawnees  had  stayed  in  Nebraska? 


COURT  HOUSE  ROCK 


IN  the  North  Platte  valley  near  the  town  of  Bridgeport  in 
Morrill  County  stands  Court  House  Rock,  rising  three 
hundred  and  forty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  valley,  grand 
and  massive  in  form.    It  is  a  landmark  noted  in  all  the  West, 
which  may  be  seen  at  a  distance  of  fifty  miles.     Upon  its 

summit  is  a  small  table- 
land. Upon  three  sides 
its  walls  are  vertical, 
with  no  crevice  or  point 
where  hand  or  foot  may 
cling.  There  is  one  dif- 
ficult path  on  the  re- 
maining side  up  which 
a  man  can  climb  with 
toil  and  danger  to  the 
summit. 


COURT  HOUSE  ROCK  AND  JAIL  ROCK. 


Many  years  ago  a  small  party  of  Skidi  Pawnees  camping 
near  Court  House  Rock  were  surprised  by  the  Sioux.  They 
climbed  the  rock  for  safety  while  the  Sioux  camped  at  the 
foot  where  they  waited  for  the  Pawnees  to  starve  or  to  come 
down  and  fight. 

The  Pawnees  suffered  terribly  from  lack  of  food  and 
water.  Their  leader  was  overcome  with  grief,  for  he  saw  the 
death  of  all  his  brave  men  near  at  hand.  At  night  he  went 
away  from  the  others  and  looking  up  to  the  stars  from  the 
top  of  the  rock,  he  prayed  to  Tirawa  for  help.  As  he  prayed 
a  voice  spoke  to  him  and  said,  "Look  for  a  place  where  you 
may  get  down  from  this  rock  and  save  both  your  men  and 
yourself."  All  night  he  kept  on  praying  and  in  the  morning 
he  looked  along  the  edge  of  the  rock  for  a  crevice  where  one 
might  get  down.  Near  the  edge  of  the  cliff  he  found  a  point 

120 


COURT  HOUSE  ROCK  121 

of  rock  rising  above  the  steep  wall  below.  With  his  sharp 
knife  he  cut  a  deep  groove  around  the  base  of  this  point  where 
it  was  no  larger  around  than  a  man's  body.  Then  he  tied 
together  all  the  pony  lariats  which  the  Pawnees  had,  let  them 
down  and  found  they  were  long  enough  to  reach  the  ground 
below.  He  tied  one  end  of  the  long  lariat  around  the  point 
of  rock,  made  a  running  loop  in  it  for  his  foot  and  slowly  let 
himself  down  pushing  his  back  against  the  wall  for  support 
until  he  reached  the  bottom.  Then  with  great  strength  and 
steadiness  he  climbed  up  by  the  same  rope.  The  next  night 
he  called  the  Pawnees  together  and  told. them  the  way  of 
escape.  One  by  one,  beginning  with  the  youngest,  the  Paw- 
nees let  themselves  down  by  the  rope  to  the  bottom  of  the 
wall.  The  last  one  to  go  down  was  the  leader.  Then  they 
softly  crept  through  the  camp  of  the  Sioux  and  by  morning 
were  miles  away  on  their  journey  to  the  Pawnee  villages 
upon  the  Loup. 

No  one  knows  how  long  the  Sioux  camped  at  the  foot  of 
the  great  high  cliffs  waiting  for  the  Pawnees  to  starve  or  to 
surrender.  But  tradition  says  that  if  one  will  go  to  the  top 
of  Court  House  Rock  and  camp  there  all  night  he  can  hear 
the  whisper  of  the  Sioux  sentinels  far  below  him  as  they 
watch  at  the  base  of  the  cliff  for  their  old  enemies  to  come 
down. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Was  the  Pawnee  leader  a  wise  man?     What  tells? 

2.  Why  let  the  youngest  down  first? 

3.  .Why  did  the  Sioux  not  hear  the  Pawnees  as  they  made  their  escape? 

4.  Should  you  like  to  camp  on  the  top  of  Court  House  Rock  over  night? 

Why? 


MAJOR  FRANK  NORTH  AND  THE  PAWNEE 

SCOUTS 


pioneers  of  Nebraska  owe  a  great  debt  of  gratitude 
to  the  Pawnee  scouts  and  their  gallant  white  leader, 
Major  Frank  North.     During  the  Sioux  and  Cheyenne  wars 
on  the  Nebraska  frontier,  from  1864  to  1877,  these  brave 
Indians,    by  their   courage   and   vigilance,    defended   our 

border,  saving  the  lives  of  hundreds 
of  settlers.  In  all  the  campaigns 
the  Pawnee  scouts  were  at  the 
front.  They  knew  the  country 
through  years  of  buffalo  hunting. 
They  knew  the  ways  and  the  camp- 
ing grounds  of  their  old  enemies, 
the  Sioux,  Cheyennes  and  Arapa- 
hoes.  In  their  memories  were  the 
old  wars  of  their  fathers,  and  the 
blood  of  friends  killed  by  a  cruel 
foe.  Spurred  by  these  memories 

they  led  the  way  to  the  hostile  camps.  They  stampeded  the 
enemy  's  ponies,  fought  bravely  in  every  battle  and  never 
stopped  at  hunger  or  hardship  in  the  long  hard  rides.  The 
story  of  the  Pawnee  scouts  and  their  service  to  the  people  of 
Nebraska  is  one  never  to  be  forgotten. 

When  the  sudden  storm  of  the  Sioux  and  Cheyenne  war 
broke  on  the  Nebraska  border  in  the  summer  of  1864,  the 
white  people  were  taken  by  surprise.  This  was  during  the 
war  between  the  North  and  the  South,  when  many  of  the 
settlers  had  enlisted  and  left  their  families  without  protec- 
tion. Hundreds  of  settlers  and  emigrants  were  killed, 
ranches  and  wagon  trains  burned,  stock  run  off  and  butch- 
ered. As  the  story  of  the  murders  and  burnings  was  brought 

122 


MAJOR  FRANK  NORTH 


MAJOR  NORTH  AND  THE  PAWNEE  SCOUTS     123 

in,  there  was  terror  in  all  the  settlements.  Everywhere  the 
Indians  were  reported  as  being  just  at  hand.  Many  settlers 
left  their  homes  and  fled  to  the  Missouri  River  while  others 
gathered  at  central  ranches  and  hastily  threw  up  intrench- 
ments. 

The  few  United  States  soldiers  on  our  frontier  were  not 
experienced  in  fighting  Indians.  A  call  was  made  for  Paw- 
nee scouts.  Frank  North  was  then  twenty-four  years  old 
and  a  clerk  at  the  Pawnee  agency  in  what  is  now  Nance 
County.  He  had  settled  at  Columbus  in  1858,  lived  among 
the  Pawnees,  learned  their  language  and  gained  their  confi- 
dence. He  was  made  first  lieutenant  of  the  first  company  of 
Pawnee  scouts,  and  soon  after  became  captain,  then  major  and 
remained  their  leader  until  they  were  mustered  out  of  service. 

Their  first  important  achievement  was  in  General  Con- 
nor's campaign  in  1865.  On  August  22d,  Captain  North 
with  forty  scouts  struck  the  trail  of  twenty-seven  Sioux  of 
Red  Cloud's  band,  who  had  just  killed  a  party  of  fifteen  sol- 
diers. He  followed  the  trail  all  day  and  all  night,  overtook 
the  Sioux  at  daybreak  and  scalped  every  warrior,  bringing 
back  the  horses  and  mules  they  had  stolen.  This  was  the 
first  victory  over  the  Sioux  in  this  war.  A  few  days  later  the 
Pawnee  scouts  led  General  Connor's  army  to  a  great  camp 
of  fifteen  hundred  hostile  Arapahoes  under  Chief  Black  Bear. 
A  complete  victory  was  won,  in  which  over  two  hundred 
Arapahoes  were  slain,  and  seven  hundred  ponies  and  all  the 
tepees  captured.  The  village  with  all  its  goods  was  burned 
and  the  destitute  Arapahoes  were  glad  to  come  in  to  Fort 
Laramie  and  make  peace. 

In  1867  Captain  North  was  made  major  of  a  battalion  of 
four  companies  of  Pawnees,  fifty  Indians  in  each  company. 
They  were  armed  with  the  new  Spencer  repeating  rifles  or 
"seven  shooters"  and  their  special  duty  was  to  protect  the 
workmen  in  building  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  The  hostile 
Indians  had  nearly  stopped  its  construction  by  killing  men, 
burning  stations  and  running  off  stock. 


124 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


The  Pawnee  battalion  took  up  this  work  with  delight. 
It  had  300  miles  of  road  from  Plum  Creek  (now  Lexington), 
in  Dawson  County  to  the  Laramie  Plains,  to  protect.  The 
Sioux  were  completely  surprised  when  they  found  their  old 


2  1  7 

SURVIVING  PAWNEE  SCOUTS,  1911 

1.  James  R.  Murie.     Interpreter  and  student  of  Pawnee  folk-lore.    Son  of  Captain  Murie 
of  Major  North's  battalion. 

2.  Captain  Jim.    His  name  under  North  was  Koot-tah-wi-kootz-tah-kah  (White  Hawk). 
He  served  several  times,  is  a  medicine  man  and  chief  of  Peta-hau-rata  band. 

3.  John  Buffalo.    His  name  under  North  was  Ree-tit-ka-wi  (Feather  in  scalp-lock).     He 
served  several  times,  is  a  Skidi  and  a  medicine  man,  and  served  as  Friar  in  a  company. 

4.  John  Box,  whose  name  when  serving  as  a  scout  was  Kee-wah-koo-pa-hat  (Red  Fox). 
He  is  a  progressive  Indian  and  one  of  the  leading  men  among  the  Skidis. 

5.  High  Eagle,  whose  name  was  Lay-tah-cots-si-ti-tu-hu-rey-ri-ku-kak-kit-ka-hoc.     He 
was  very  young  when  scouting. 

6.  Seeing  Eagle,  a  Skidi,  and  a  warrior  who  served  under  North  each  time.     His  name 
when  scouting  was  Lay-tah-cots-si-ti-ti-rit  (They  saw  an  eagle). 

7.  Belly  Osborne,  a  Skidi  who  was  with  North  every  time.     He  was  a  sergeant  in  Com- 
pany A.    His  name  under  North  was  Koot-tah-wi-koots-rah-rah-he-coots  (Brave  Hawk). 

enemy  the  Pawnees  on  their  trail,  with  good  horses  and  rifles 
and  the  United  States  back  of  them.  After  one  or  two  sharp 
skirmishes,  in  which  they  were  chased  long  distances  with 
loss,  their  raids  on  the  railroad  became  rare. 


MAJOR  NORTH  AND  THE  PAWNEE  SCOUTS     125 

August  1,  1867,  the  Cheyenne  chief  " Turkey  Leg"  with 
his  band  tore  up  a  culvert  four  miles  west  of  Plum  Creek  and 
ditched  a  Union  Pacific  freight  train.  They  killed  the  train- 
men, broke  open  the  cars,  stole  everything  they  could  take 
and  burned  the  train.  Captain  Murie  with  one  company 
of  Pawnee  scouts,  chased  old  Turkey  Leg  out  of  the  state, 
killing  fifteen  warriors  and  capturing  the  chief 's  nephew  and 
a  squaw.  This  discouraged  Turkey  Leg  so  much  that  he 
came  into  North  Platte,  gave  up  the  six  white  prisoners  he 
had  in  exchange  for  his  nephew  and  the  squaw,  made  peace, 
and  became  a  good  Indian. 

The  Sioux  Chief  Tall  Bull  with  a  hostile  band  roamed 
over  western  Kans-as  and  Nebraska  for  a  long  time,  murder- 
ing, robbing,  burning  and  dodging  the  soldiers  sent  after  him. 
On  July  12, 1869,  Major  North  and  the  Pawnee  scouts  guided 
General  Carr  with  the  Fifth  Cavalry  to  Tall  Bull's  camp 
hidden  in  the  sandhills  between  the  Platte  and  the  French- 
man 's  Fork,  just  west  of  the  Nebraska  state  line.  The  bat- 
tle of  Summit  Springs  which  followed  completely  wiped  out 
Tall  Bull  and  his  band.  Fifty-two  warriors  were  killed,  and 
the  camp  with  over  four  hundred  horses  and  mules  captured. 
Two  white  women  prisoners  were  in  Tall  Bull 's  tent.  When 
he  found  the  soldiers  were  upon  him  he  killed  one  and  wound- 
ed the  other.  The  one  wounded  was  a  German  woman 
whose  husband  had  been  murdered  in  Kansas.  In  the 
captured  camp  was  a  great  deal  of  rich  plunder  taken  from 
white  people,  including  jewelry  and  over  $1,500  in  twenty- 
dollar  gold  pieces.  This  fell  into  the  hands  of  soldiers  and 
Pawnee  scouts.  Later  when  it  was  found  that  much  of  this 
gold  had  been  taken  from  the  dead  husband  of  the  wounded 
woman  the  white  soldiers  brought  in  $300  and  the  Pawnee 
scouts  $600  and  placed  this  sum  in  her  hands  on  the  battle- 
field. 

The  defeat  of  Tall  Bull's  band  was  one  of  the  greatest 
blessings  to  the  Nebraska  border.  The  Nebraska  legisla- 
ture passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  General  Carr's  com- 


126  STORIES   OF  NEBRASKA 

mand,  especially  mentioning  Major  North  and  the  Pawnee 
scouts. 

For  two  years  the  Pawnee  scouts  continued  to  guard  and 
patrol  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  making  it  possible  to  run 
regular  trains  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  January,  1871,  the 
scouts  were  mustered  out  of  service  while  Major  North  re- 
mained as  scout  and  guide. 

In  the  summer  of  1876  the  Sioux  under  Sitting  Bull  and 
Crazy  Horse  were  again  on  the  warpath.  General  Custer 
and  all  his  command  were  killed  on  the  Little  Big  Horn  in 
Montana.  There  were  seven  or  eight  thousand  Sioux  under 
Red  Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail  in  what  is  now  Dawes  and 
Sioux  counties,  Nebraska,  near  Fort  Robinson.  It  was  feared 
that  they  would  break  away  and  join  the  hostile  Indians. 
General  Sheridan  ordered  Major  North  to  go  to  Indian  Terri- 
tory, where  the  Pawnee  tribe  now  lived,  and  to  enlist  one 
hundred  scouts  to  serve  against  the  Sioux.  There  was  great 
excitement  on  the  Pawnee  reserve  when  Major  North  came. 
He  found  the  Pawnees  very  poor.  All  of  them  wanted  to  go 
with  him.  He  picked  out  his  one  hundred  men  and  was 
followed  for  eighty  miles  by  others  begging  to  enlist. 

With  these  one  hundred  scouts  Major  North  reached 
Fort  Robinson,  October  22,  1876,  and  without  resting  was 
ordered  to  march  forty  miles  with  a  regiment  of  cavalry. 
After  an  all  night  march  they  surprised  Red  Cloud's  camp 
near  Chadron  at  daybreak  and  captured  it  without  a  shot. 
All  the  ponies  of  Red  Cloud 's  band,  over  700,  were  taken  by 
the  Pawnees  to  Fort  Laramie  and  sold,  while  the  Indians 
were  marched  on  foot  to  Fort  Robinson  and  kept  to  the  end 
of  the  war.  It  was  a  bitter  disgrace  for  the  proud  Sioux  to 
have  their  ponies  taken  away  from  them  by  their  old  Pawnee 
enemies  and  Red  Cloud  never  forgot  it. 

In  November,  General  Crook  ordered  Major  North  and 
the  Pawnee  scouts  to  march  north  for  a  winter  campaign 
against  the  Sioux  and  Cheyennes.  The  Indian  scouts 
brought  news  that  they  had  found  a  large  Cheyenne  camp  in 


MAJOR  NORTH  AND  THE  PAWNEE  SCOUTS     127 

a  pocket  of  the  Big  Horn  mountains  so  well  concealed  that  it 
would  be  impossible  to  approach  it  in  daylight.  General 
McKenzie  was  ordered  by  General  Crook  to  make  a  night 
march  with  800  white  cavalry  and  70  Pawnee  scouts.  All 
night  the  soldiers  rode  over  a  terribly  rough  and  dangerous 
region  with  their  Pawnee  guides  at  the  head.  Toward  morn- 
ing they  heard  the  sound  of  Indian  drums. 

The  Cheyennes  were  dancing  a  scalp  dance  over  the  re- 
turn of  a  successful  war  party.  About  daybreak  the 
warriors,  tired  with  dancing,  went  to  sleep.  A  little  later 
the  Pawnees  and  soldiers  burst  into  their  camp.  The 
Cheyennes  fought  desperately,  for  they  were  fighting  for  their 
homes  and  their  winter  living.  Most  of  them  escaped  to  the 
rough  ground  from  which  they  fired  on  the  troops.  All  the 
Cheyenne  ponies,  650  in  number,  were  taken  by  the  Paw- 
nees. General  McKenzie  ordered  all  the  Cheyenne  lodges, 
all  their  rich  buffalo  robes  and  winter  provisions  to  be  piled 
and  burned  to  ashes,  and  the  Cheyennes  saw  them  burn.  A 
heavy  snowstorm  came  on  and  General  McKenzie  marched 
back,  taking  with  him  the  Indian  ponies  and  leaving  the  band 
destitute. 

The  miserable  Cheyennes  with  their  women  and  children 
made  their  way  on  foot  to  the  camp  of  Crazy  Horse  on  Pow- 
der River.  Over  forty  of  then*  number  died  from  exposure 
and  starvation  on  the  way.  Stern  Crazy  Horse  shut  his 
doors  in  their  face.  He  was  so  angry  because  they  had  per- 
mitted themselves  to  be  outwitted  and  surprised  that  he 
would  give  them  no  help.  There  was  nothing  for  the 
Cheyennes  to  do  but  to  drag  themselves  across  the  cold  plains 
to  Fort  Robinson  and  surrender  to  the  whites. 

All  the  cold  winter  the  war  went  on.  General  Crook 
never  rested  nor  gave  the  enemy  rest.  There  was  no  chance 
for  the  Sioux  that  winter  to  hunt  buffalo  or  elk,  The  terri- 
ble cavalry  and  the  Pawnee  scouts,  their  old  enemies,  were 
on  their  trail.  In  the  spring  the  starving  and  ragged  rem- 
nants of  the  once  proud  Sioux  of  the  plains  came  in  and 


128  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

surrendered  on  Nebraska  soil  at  Fort  Robinson.  It  was  a 
great  day  for  the  Pawnee  scouts  when  they  were  mustered 
out  of  service  May  1,  1877,  and  returned  to  Indian  Territory 
to  tell  the  story  of  Red  Cloud's  ponies  and  Crazy  Horse's 
surrender. 

After  the  war  was  over  Major  North  engaged  with  W.  F. 
Cody  (Buffalo  Bill)  in  cattle  ranching  on  the  Dismal  River 
in  western  Nebraska.  Thousands  of  their  cattle  ranged  the 
sand  hills.  Their  ranch  door  was  open  wide  without  price  to 
all  honest  travelers,  but  cattle  and  horse  thieves,  white  or 
red,  soon  learned  to  dread  the  fearless  spirits  and  ready  rifles 
waiting  for  them  there.  Many  are  the  stirring  and  true 
stories  told  of  Frank  North  in  those  ranching  days. 

In  1882  the  people  of  Platte  County  elected  Major  North 
to  the  Nebraska  legislature.  He  died  at  Columbus  March 
14,  1885,  aged  forty-five  years,  leaving  a  wife  and  daughter. 
All  the  people  of  Nebraska  mourned  his  loss,  for  he  was  not 
only  a  brave  soldier  but  kind  and  just  and  true  in  all  his  life. 

Only  a  few  of  the  famous  Pawnee  scouts  who  followed 
Major  North  and  kept  the  Nebraska  border  in  the  stormy 
years  of  war  and  frontiering  now  survive.  Those  whom  I 
saw  on  their  reservation  in  Oklahoma  were  a  fine  group  of 
sturdy  men  with  strong  fearless  faces.  Their  eyes  light  up 
when  the  name  of  Major  North  is  mentioned,  and  looking 
up  into  the  sky  they  speak  with  deepest  love  and  admiration 
his  Pawnee  name,  "Pani-LeShar." 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  were  the  Pawnees  and  white  men  together  able  to  defeat  the  hostile 

Indians  when  neither  one  alone  could  make  headway  against  them? 

2.  Why  did  the  hostile  Indians  try  to  prevent  the  building  of  the  Union 

Pacific  Railroad? 

3.  Did  General  Crook  do  right  in  taking  away  all  their  ponies  from  Red 

Cloud's  band?     Ought  the  United  States  to  pay  for  them? 

4.  What  qualities  do  you  think  a  white  man  must  have  to  become  a  leader 

among  Indians? 


THE  ROCK  BLUFFS  DINNER  PARTY 

ROCK  BLUFFS  is  a  quiet  little  village  in  Cass  County  on 
the  Missouri  River.  It  is  one  of  the  earliest  settle- 
ments in  the  state.  Its  name  will  always  be  joined  to  an 
important  event  in  Nebraska  history,  for  on  the  counting  of 
its  vote  depended  whether  Nebraska  should  come  into  the 
union  a  Republican  or  a  Democratic  state.  And  the  counting 
of  its  vote  was  made  to  depend  on  the  ballot  box  going  to 
dinner. 

At  the  election  in  June,  1866,  the  people  of  Nebraska 
voted  upon  the  question  whether  Nebraska  should  become  a 
state.  At  the  same  time  they  voted  for  state  officers  whom 
they  would  have  provided  it  became  a  state.  The  Republi- 
cans were  in  favor  of  making  Nebraska  a  state  at  once  and 
named  David  Butler  of  Pawnee  County  as  candidate  for 
governor.  The  Democrats  opposed  making  Nebraska  a 
state  at  once,  and  named  J.  Sterling  Morton  of  Otoe  County 
as  candidate  for  governor.  The  people  were  nearly  evenly 
divided  and  there  was  great  excitement. 

There  were  no  telephones  and  very  few  telegraph  lines  in 
Nebraska  in  those  days.  The  settlements  were  scattered 
and  it  took  a  long  time  to  find  out  how  the  people  had  voted. 
When  the  returns  came  in  it  was  found  that  about  one  hun- 
dred more  had  voted  to  have  Nebraska  become  a  state  at 
once  than  had  voted  against  it. 

A  legislature  also  was  voted  for  at  this  time,  which  was  to 
choose  two  United  States  Senators.  In  Rock  Bluffs  pre- 
cinct there  were  cast  107  votes  for  the  Democrats  and  49  for 
the  Republicans.  With  these  votes  counted  the  Democrats 
would  elect  six  members  of  the  legislature  from  Cass  County. 
Without  them  the  Republicans  would  elect  all  six  members. 
It  was  found  that  the  election  officers  who  had  charge  of  the 

129 


130 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


ROCK  BLUFFS  HOUSE  WHERE  ELECTION 
WAS  HELD  IN  1866 


ballot  box  in  Rock  Bluffs  precinct  had  gone  at  noon  from  the 
house  where  the  election  was  held  to  a  house  a  mile  away  to 
eat  dinner  and  had  taken  the  ballot  box  with  them.  The 

law  said  that  the  ballot 
box  should  be  in  sight  of 
the  voters  on  election  day 
from  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  until  six  o  'clock 
at  night.  The  county 
clerk  and  the  men  who 
helped  him  to  canvass 
the  votes  at  Plattsmouth 
threw  out  all  the  votes 
from  Rock  Bluffs  precinct 
because  the  ballot  box 
went  to  dinner  instead  of  staying  at  the  polls.  This  gave 
the  six  Republican  candidates  a  majority  in  Cass  County. 
When  the  legislature  met  to  elect  two  United  States 
Senators  the  two  Republican  candidates,  John  M.  Thayer 
and  T.  W.  Tipton,  each  received  29  votes  and  the  two  Demo- 
cratic candidates,  J.  Sterling  Morton  and  A.  J.  Poppleton, 
each  received  21  votes.  If  the  Rock  Bluffs  vote  had  been 
counted  the  two  Democrats  would  have  been  elected. 

There  was  a  great  outcry  by  the  Democrats  at  the  time 
and  in  the  records  and  newspapers  of  those  early  days  you 
may  still  read  the  hot  words  spoken  and  written  about  this 
affair.  The  men  who  fought  each  other  in  those  fierce  early 
political  battles  have  nearly  all  passed  away.  Little  now 
remains  of  the  village  of  Rock  Bluffs.  A  few  old  houses  only 
exist  on  the  old  site  near  the  Missouri  River,  six  miles  from  a 
railroad  and  only  a  few  of  the  people  there  now  know  the 
story  of  the  ballot  box  that  went  to  dinner  and  changed  the 
politics  of  a  state. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Do  you  think  the  vote  of  Rock  Bluffs  precinct  should  have  been  thrown 

out? 

2.  Was  Nebraska  made  permanently  a  Republican  instead  of  a  Democratic 

state  by  this  action? 


ON  the  17th  of  September,  1869,  was  fought  the  hardest 
battle  between  the  white  men  and  the  plains  Indians  in 
the  annals  of  the  West.  It  was  fought  on  the  Arickaree  fork 
of  the  Republican  River,  a  few  miles  from  the  southwest 
corner  of  Nebraska  and  not  far  from  the  present  town  of 
Wray,  Colorado,  on  the  Denver  line 
of  the  Burlington  road.  Fifty-one 
scouts  and  frontiersmen  under  the 
command  of  Lieutenant  Geo.  A. 
Forsyth  stood  off,  on  a  little  sand- 
bar in  the  river,  the  combined  forces 
of  the  Northern  Cheyennes,  Arapa- 
hoes  and  Oglala  Sioux  for  nine  days. 
They  lost  more  than  one  third  their 
own  number  in  killed  and  wounded, 
while  the  Indian  loss  was  many 
times  as  great. 

For  months  these  Indians  had 
been  murdering  the  settlers  and 
travelers  in  western  Nebraska  and 
Kansas.  Soldiers  were  sent  to  pursue  them  but  always 
arrived  on  the  scene  of  their  action  after  the  Indians  were 
gone,  finding  nothing  but  the  melancholy  duty  of  burying 
the  murdered  citizens.  Lieutenant  Forsyth  raised  a  com- 
pany of  fifty  frontiersmen.  Many  of  them  had  lost  their 
dearest  friends  and  relatives  by  the  Indians.  Some  of  them 
were  noted  scouts.  All  of  them  enlisted  to  fight. 

Early  in  September  this  little  command  started  from  the 
place  of  the  latest  Indian  murder  near  Fort  Wallace,  Kansas. 
They  struck  a  trail  leading  to  the  Republican  River.  Follow- 

131 


LIEUT.  GEO.  A.  FORSYTH 


132  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

ing  the  trail  up  the  Republican  River  in  Nebraska  it  was 
joined  by  other  trails  and  still  others  until  the  little  party  of 
fifty  men  was  traveling  a  great  beaten  road,  as  wide  as  the 
Oregon  Trail,  made  by  thousands  of  Indians  and  ponies,  and 
with  hundreds  of  camp  fires  where  they  stopped  at  night. 
It  seemed  a  crazy  act  to  follow  so  great  a  trail  with  so  small 
a  party,  but  the  little  band  had  started  out  to  find  and  fight 
Indians  and  kept  on. 

On  the  afternoon  of  September  16th,  the  Indian  signs 
were  very  fresh  and  Lieutenant  Forsyth  resolved  to  go  into 
camp  early,  rest  his  men  and  be  ready  to  strike  the  Indians 
the  next  day.  An  extra  number  of  men  were  posted  on 
picket  duty  to  prevent  surprise.  In  the  earliest  gray  of  the 
next  morning,  the  men  were  up  and  saddling  their  horses 
when  there  came  a  volley  of  shots  from  the  pickets  followed 
by  the  yell  and  rush  of  Indians.  The  savages  had  expected 
to  find  the  soldiers  asleep  and  their  horses  out  feeding. 
Their  plan  was  to  stampede  the  horses  and  leave  the  soldiers 
on  foot  in  the  open  prairie  where  they  could  easily  surround 
them  and  cut  them  off.  They  found  their  horses  saddled, 
every  scout  ready  with  his  rifle,  and  soon  retreated  out  of 
reach  of  the  white  men 's  bullets.  As  daylight  broke,  Grover, 
the  head  scout,  exclaimed,  "  Look  at  the  Indians !"  The  hills 
on  both  sides  of  the  little  valley  swarmed  with  them.  None 
of  the  scouts  had  ever  before  seen  so  many  hostile  Indians  in 
one  body. 

Lieutenant  Forsyth  saw  the  situation  at  a  glance.  A  few 
hundred  yards  away  in  the  middle  of  the  river  was  a  sandbar 
island  having  one  cottonwood  tree  and  a  growth  of  willows. 
It  was  the  only  cover  in  the  valley.  At  the  word  of  com- 
mand the  scouts  dashed  forward  through  the  water  to  the 
island.  Every  man  tied  his  horse  strongly  to  a  willow  bush 
and  dropping  on  his  knee  held  his  rifle  in  one  hand  and  dug 
a  hole  in  the  sand  with  the  other.  This  move  was  a  com- 
plete surprise  to  the  Indians.  They  had  expected  to  eat  up 
the  little  band  at  one  mouthful.  They  now  saw  them  mak- 


THE   BATTLE    OF   ARICKAREE    FORK  133 

ing  a  fort  out  of  the  little  island.  The  Indians  crowded  up 
to  the  bank  on  both  sides  of  the  river  and  filled  the  air  with 
a  storm  of  bullets  and  arrows.  A  number  of  the  scouts  were 
killed  and  wounded,  while  the  poor  horses  plunged  and 
struggled  in  misery  until  they  fell  in  death. 

The  fire  of  the  Indians  was  very  hot  and  accurate. 
Lieutenant  Forsyth  had  his  leg  broken  by  a  bullet  and  his 
second  in  command,  Lieutenant  Frederick  H.  Beecher,  a 
nephew  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  was  killed.  Forsyth  cut 
the  bullet  from  his  leg,  which  he  bandaged  with  his  own  hands, 
telling  his  men  to  be  steady,  to  help  each  other  and  to  make 
every  shot  count.  In  the  course  of  an  hour  the  men  became 
calmer.  They  were  getting  a  good  cover  with  sand  and 
dead  horses.  Every  time  an  Indian  showed  himself  within 
range  a  bullet  went  after  him.  This  discouraged  the 
Indians  so  much  that  they  drew  back,  while  the  scouts  took 
the  time  to  care  for  the  wounded  and  to  throw  up  more  sand. 

About  noon  there  was  a  great  gathering  of  Indians  on  the 
hill  in  sight  of  the  scouts.  Warriors  came  riding  in  from  all 
parts  of  the  field.  Among  them  was  one  whom  every  scout 
knew  at  long  distance.  He  was  Roman  Nose,  over  six  feet 
tall,  the  tallest  Indian  on  the  plains,  and  one  of  their  greatest 
chiefs.  It  was  evident  a  big  plan  was  under  way.  The 
council  broke  up  and  the  plan  appeared.  Roman  Nose  led 
a  body  of  mounted  young  men  out  into  the  valley.  Others 
joined  them.  They  drew  together  in  a  line  facing  the  island 
with  Roman  Nose  at  the  head.  The  plan  was  now  clear. 
This  chosen  body  of  two  or  three  hundred  was  to  charge 
straight  on  the  island  while  the  rest  of  the  Indians  crept  up 
through  the  grass  and  fired  as  fast  as  they  could  at  the  scouts 
in  their  sand  pits  to  distract  their  attention. 

Roman  Nose  gave  the  signal  and  his  horsemen  started 
for  the  island.  Lieutenant  Forsyth  had  ordered  his  men  not 
to  fire  until  the  first  pony  reached  the  river's  edge.  The 
scouts  were  armed  with  a  new  gun,  the  Spencer  Seven- 
shooter  Carbine.  The  Indians  knew  what  a  one-shot  rifle 


134 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


was,  but  had  never  seen  one  that  shot  seven  times  without 
loading.  On  came  the  line  of  Indians,  yelling  and  whipping 
their  horses.  Just  at  the  river 's  bank  the  rifles  of  the  scouts 
flashed  from  the  sand  pits  and  groups  of  riders  fell  from  their 
ponies.  On  they  came.  Another  volley  and  more  Indians 
fell.  Another,  and  another  and  another  and  another,  with 
a  steady  aim  and  terrible  effect.  Roman  Nose  himself  fell 
dead  from  his  horse  and  the  Indian  line  broke  and  scattered. 
Lieutenant  Forsyth  turned  anxiously  to  his  scout  Grover. 
"Can  they  do  any  better  than  that?"  he  asked.  "I  have 
been  on  these  plains,  boy  and  man,  for  twenty  years  and  I 
never  saw  anything  like  it,"  answered  the  scout.  "Then 
we  have  got  them,"  replied  Forsyth. 

The  battle  now  changed  to  a  siege,  while  from  the  hills 
arose  that  most  harrowing  of  all  sorrowful  cries,  the  wail  of 
the  Indian  women  for  their  dead.  Through  many  hours 
this  haunted  the  ears  of  the  men  on  the  island.  There  were 
no  more  attempts  to  take  the  island  by  storm.  Starvation 
was  the  Indian  plan.  At  the  first  of  the  fight  the  scouts  had 
lost  their  pack  mules  with  all  their  provisions.  They  had 
nothing  but  river  water  and  dead  horse.  Attempts  were 

made  after  dark  to  creep 
through  the  Indian  lines 
and  carry  word  to  the 
railroad  a  hundred  miles 
away.  The  first  attempt 
failed.  The  Indians  were 
too  watchful.  Another 
attempt  was  made,  two 
scouts  crept  out  in  the 
darkness  and  did  not  re- 
turn. Those  left  on  the 
island  could  not  know 
whether  their  messengers  were  dead  or  not.  They  could 
only  hope  and  watch  the  line  where  the  sky  and  prairie  met. 
For  a  whole  week  they  lay  in  their  sand  pits,  drank  river 


ARICKAREE  OR  BEECHER  ISLAND  BATTLE- 
FIELD. 1910 


THE   BATTLE   OF   ARICKAREE    FORK  135 

water  and  ate  horse  meat.  The  hot  sun  glared  from  the 
sky,  the  smell  of  the  dead  filled  the  air,  the  flies  buzzed  and 
the  Indians  glided  stealthily  about  the  hills.  A  little  charge 
would  have  captured  the  island  now,  but  the  Indians  had 
suffered  too  much  to  try  again.  They  preferred  to  starve 
the  scouts. 

It  was  in  the  forenoon  of  September  25th,  when  a  dark 
moving  patch  appeared  far  off  on  the  prairie.  It  grew  larger 
until  the  watchers  saw  that  it  was  an  ambulance  and  a 
column  of  cavalry.  They  knew  then  that  the  battle  and  the 
siege  of  Beecher  Island  were  over.  The  Indians  fled  as  the 
soldiers  came  near,  and  soon  the  starving  and  wounded  were 
being  cared  for. 

General  Custer  said  that  the  Arickaree  fight  was  the 
greatest  battle  on  the  plains.  At  Wounded  Knee,  South 
Dakota,  lives  a  tall  wise  Sioux  named  Fire  Lightning.  He 
was  in  the  Arickaree  fight  and  told  me  this  story  one  summer 
afternoon  sitting  in  the  shadow  of  his  log  house  and  looking 
out  upon  his  garden.  He  said  the  Indians  lost  nearly  a 
hundred  men  in  the  fight  and  showed  by  gestures  with  his 
hands  how  fast  the  white  men  fired  from  their  sand  pits  and 
how  Roman  Nose  fell  from  his  horse. 


QUESTIONS 

1 .  Did  Lieutenant  Forsyth  act  the  part  of  a  wise  commander  in  following 

such  an  Indian  trail  with  his  small  force? 

2.  Was  it  courage  or  skill  or  accident  which  saved  his  soldiers  from  destruc- 

tion? 

3.  Was  Roman  Nose's  plan  a  good  one?     Why  did  it  fail? 

4.  Which  would  you  rather  have  done  —  stayed  on  the  island  or  crept  out 

to  get  help? 


THE  FIRST  RAILROAD 

AFTER  Lewis  and  Clark  had  found  a  way  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  the  early  emigrants  to  Oregon,  California 
and  Utah  had  made  the  great  overland  wagon  roads  across 
Nebraska  and  on  to  the  western  coast,  the  people  began  to 
want  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific.  The  first  railroad  in  the 
United  States  was  built  in  1829  at  Baltimore.  Soon  after 
that  a  few  people  began  to  talk  about  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  It  was  a  far-off  dream  at  first.  Nowhere  in  the 
world  had  a  railroad  ever  been  built  for  so  great  a  distance 
or  over  such  high  mountains.  Then  there  were  no  white 
people  living  along  the  way,  but  instead  there  were  tribes 
of  wild  Indians.  So  those  who  spoke  of  building  a  railroad 
to  the  Pacific  were  called  dreamers.  Very  few  thought  it 
was  possible  to  build  such  a  road  and  still  fewer  believed  that 
they  would  ever  live  to  see  it  built. 

In  1850  Senator  Benton,  of  Missouri,  introduced  a  bill  in 
Congress  to  build  a  Pacific  railroad.  By  it  the  United 
States  was  to  give  a  strip  of  land  a  mile  wide  from  the 
Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  the  railroad  was  to 
be  built  in  the  center  of  the  mile  strip.  More  people  began 
to  believe  it  was  possible  to  build  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific. 
They  began  to  dispute  where  it  should  be  built.  Some  want- 
ed it  built  in  the  south  and  some  in  the  north  and  some  in  the 
central  part  of  the  United  States.  The  dispute  was  so 
fierce  it  seemed  that  no  road  would  be  built  because  the 
people  would  never  agree  upon  its  route. 

War  broke  out  between  the  South  and  the  North  in  1861. 
There  was  more  need  than  ever  for  a  railroad  to  unite  the 
East  with  the  West.  Many  surveys  had  been  made  to  find 
the  best  route  across  the  mountains.  The  Nebraska  way, 
up  the  broad  level  valley  of  the  Platte,  was  chosen  as  the  best 

136 


THE  FIRST  RAILROAD 


137 


approach  to  them.  On  the  first  day  of  July,  1862,  President 
Abraham  Lincoln  signed  the  bill  which  provided  for  building 
the  first  railroad  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  the  first  railroad 
in  Nebraska.  To  help  build  the  road  the  United  States  gave 
each  alternate  section  of  land  for  twenty  miles  on  each  side  of 
the  track,  and  besides  this  loaned  the  company  $16,000  for 
each  mile  across  the  prairie  and  $48,000  for  each  mile  in  the 


UNION  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  TRAIN  CROSSING  MISSOURI  RIVER  AT  OMAHA,  1866 

mountains.  The  road  was  called  the  Union  Pacific  and  the 
first  shovel  of  dirt  for  its  track  was  thrown  in  Omaha  on 
December  2,  1863. 

There  were  very  great  hindrances  to  be  overcome  in 
building  the  road.  A  great  war  was  going  on  and  it  was  hard 
to  get  men.  All  the  iron  and  most  of  the  other  material  had 
to  be  shipped  long  distances.  The  Indians  on  the  plains 
killed  many  of  the  workmen,  drove  off  the  horses  and  cattle 
and  burned  the  stations.  It  was  July  13,  1865,  before  the 


138  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

first  rails  were  laid  at  Omaha.  On  March  13,  1866,  the  first 
sixty  miles  as  far  as  North  Bend  were  completed.  During 
that  year  the  first  trains  began  running  to  Kearney.  It  took 
nineteen  hours  to  go  from  Omaha  to  Kearney,  now  Buda, 
and  the  fare  was  nineteen  dollars.  By  June,  1867,  the  track 
had  been  laid  as  far  as  the  west  line  of  Nebraska,  and  on 
May  10,  1869,  the  builders  of  the  Union  Pacific  from 
Nebraska  met  the  builders  of  the  Central  Pacific  from 
California  at  Promontory  Point  on  the  shore  of  the  Great 
Salt  Lake  in  Utah  and  drove  a  golden  spike  which  completed 
the  railroad  and  made  a  continuous  line  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

Since  that  time  seven  other  lines  have  been  built  across 
the  mountains  to  the  western  coast,  but  to  Nebraska  belongs 
the  honor  of  determining  the  route  for  the  first  Pacific  rail- 
road. 

Every  night  and  every  day  great  trains  fly  along  the 
Platte  valley  crowded  with  passengers  for  the  mountains, 
the  Pacific  coast  and  the  world  which  lies  beyond,  passing 
on  their  way  the  trains  loaded  with  the  teas,  the  silks  and  the 
wonderful  handiwork  of  Japan,  India  and  China,  the  fruit  of 
California  and  Oregon,  and  the  cattle,  sheep  and  minerals 
from  the  mountains.  Never  a  pause  in  this  wonderful  pro- 
cession as  it  hurries  over  the  Nebraska  plains,  making  them 
the  highway  of  the  greatest  commerce  east  and  west  which 
the  world  has  ever  known. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  What  are  dreamers  good  for? 

2.  Why  was  the  first  Pacific  railroad  built  across  Nebraska? 

3.  Of  what  good  to  Nebraska  is  it  to  have  the  world  s  commerce  and  world's 

travelers  passing  over  our  railroads? 


A  STAGE  COACH  HERO  OF  THE  LITTLE  BLUE 

ON  the  morning  of  August  9,  1864,  the  overland  stage 
coach  left  Big  Sandy  station  on  the  Little  Blue  River 
in  Jefferson  County,  Nebraska.  There  were  seven  men  and 
two  women  passengers.  Robert  Emery  was  the  driver. 

Two  days  before  this  the  Sioux  had  attacked  the  travelers 
and  stations  on  the  overland  trail  from  the  Platte  to  the 
Little  Blue.  About  forty  white  people  were  killed,  scalped 
and  cut  to  pieces,  ranches  and  wagon  trains  were  burned 
and  all  the  stock  run  off. 

Rumors  of  the  Indian  attack  had  reached  Big  Sandy,  but 
no  one  knew  the  truth, —  that  butchered  men  and  burned 
wagons  lined  the  road  for  two  hundred  miles.  No  signs  of 
Indians  were  seen  by  the  stage  driver  until  eleven  o'clock. 
The  stage  was  not  far  from  "the  Narrows,"  a  long  ridge  lead- 
ing to  the  valley  of  the  Little  Blue  with  deep  gullies  on  either 


STAGE  COACH.     (Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

side,  when  the  driver  saw,  about  two  hundred  yards  ahead, 
a  band  of  fifty  Indians  waiting  for  him.  Quick  as  he  saw 
them  he  wheeled  his  four  horses  and  stage  coach  right  about 
and  started  back, —  ten  yards  farther  on  and  he  could  not 
have  done  this. 

It  was  a  race  for  life.     The  Indians  gave  their  yell  and 
dashed  after  them  in  pursuit.     The  driver  laid  the  lash  on 

139 


140  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

the  horses'  backs  and  the  stage  flew  over  the  road.  The 
passengers  sprang  to  their  feet  wild  with  fright.  "Keep 
your  seats  or  we  are  lost!"  commanded  the  driver  and  they 
obeyed.  Arrows  flew  thick.  Some  stuck  in  the  stage 
coach,  some  grazed  the  driver's  cheek  and  one  cut  the 
rosette  from  the  bridle  of  a  wheel  horse. 

The  driver  kept  a  cool  head.  There  were  two  sharp 
turns  in  the  road.  As  he  neared  them  he  pulled  up  the 
horses,  made  the  turns  carefully  and  then  whipped  ahead 
again.  The  passengers  held  their  breath  in  terror  at  these 
turns  as  they  watched  the  Indians  gain  on  them,  but  the 
splendid  speed  and  mettle  of  the  stage  horses  carried  them 
on. 

Three  miles  the  race  lasted.  Far  ahead  a  swaying  line 
in  the  road  showed  an  ox  train  of  twenty-five  wagons  coming 
west.  A  mile  away  the  master  of  the  train  saw  the  Indians 
and  stage  coach.  He  quickly  made  a  corral  of  his  wagons 
with  an  opening  toward  the  west.  Into  this  gap  Emery 
drove  his  stage  while  the  rifles  of  the  wagon  train  began  to 
bark  at  the  Indians.  The  passengers  were  saved  and  could 
hardly  express  their  joy.  They  hugged  and  kissed  the  driver 
and  threw  their  arms  about  the  necks  of  the  noble  horses 
that  had  brought  them  through  in  safety. 

A  year  later  the  stage  driver  lay  dying  with  a  fever.  Just 
before  his  death,  Mrs.  Randolph,  one  of  the  passengers  in  the 
stage  coach  that  day,  placed  upon  his  finger  a  beautiful  gold 
ring  with  these  words  engraved  upon  it : 

E.  Umphry,  G.  C.  Randolph 
and  Hattie  P.  Randolph  to 

ROBERT  EMERY 

in  remembrance  of  what  we  owe 

to  his  cool  conduct  and  good  driving  on 

Tuesday,  August  9,  1864. 


A  STAGE  COACH   HERO  OF  THE  LITTLE  BLUE     141 

And,  looking  at  the  ring,  this  stage  coach  hero  of  the 
Little  Blue  gave  up  the  lines  at  the  end  of  his  last  drive. 


QUESTIONS 

1 .  Have  you  ever  seen  a  stage  coach?     Have  you  ridden  in  one? 

2.  In  what  respects  is  a  stage  coach  journey  better  fun  than  a  journey  by 

railroad? 

3.  Was  Robert  Emery  just  the  kind  of  a  man  to  drive  a  stage  coach?   .  Why? 

4.  What  are  such  men  as  Robert  Emery  doing  to-day? 


THE  PRAIRIE  FIRE 

ALL  Nebraska  was  one  great  field  of  wild  grass  in  the 
early  days.  A  few  trees  grew  along  the  streams  and  in 
the  ravines.  All  the  rest  was  grass.  In  the  heat  of  summer 
the  short  grass  dried  on  its  roots.  When  the  frosts  of  early 
fall  came  the  tall,  green  grasses  were  killed.  Then  the  au- 
tumn winds  blew  and  the  grass  everywhere  was  dead  and 
very  dry. 

Prairie  fires  burned  in  this  great  ocean  of  dry  grass  every 
fall  and  spring.  Indians  or  white  hunters  or  campers  started 
them.  Once  started  a  fire  spread  on  and  on  until  a  rain  fell 
or  until  it  reached  a  river  too  wide  for  it  to  jump. 

One  of  the  great  dangers  to  the  early  settlers  was  from 
the  prairie  fire.  To  protect  their  homes  and  stacks  from  its 
ravages  they  broke  a  narrow  strip  of  sod  around  them,  then, 
at  some  distance  inside  of  that,  another  narrow  strip  and 
burned  the  grass  between.  This  was  called  a  " fireguard." 
It  was  usually  from  four  to  eight  rods  wide.  It  would  stop 
any  common  fire  and  keep  the  settler's  house  and  stables 
and  haystacks  safe. 

Early  every  fall  the  children  on  the  farm  helped  their 
father  to  burn  fireguards  around  the  place.  This  was  done 
on  the  first  quiet  evening  after  the  grass  was  dry.  It  was 
great  fun  for  the  children,  who  loved  to  take  long  wisps  of 
lighted  grass  and  carry  the  fire  along  the  inside  of  the  fire- 
guard with  shouts  and  laughter,  while  the  dark  prairie  was 
lighted  until  their  moving  figures  made  shadows  upon  the 
fields. 

A  little  later  the  prairie  fires  appeared.  Every  night  a 
red  glow  against  the  sky  was  the  sign  of  distant  fires.  The 
days  were  smoky  and  the  smell  of  burning  grass  was  upon 
the  air.  Sometimes  there  came  a  high  wind  driving  the 

142 


THE  PRAIRIE  FIRE  143 

flames  faster  than  a  horse  could  run.  Blazing  tumble  weeds 
and  sunflower  heads  were  caught  up  in  the  gale  and  whirled 
hundreds  of  yards,  starting  new  fires  wherever  they  fell. 

The  front  of  such  a  fire  was  called  a  "headfire."  It  ran 
with  the  wind  across  miles  of  prairie,  with  its  long  red  tongues 
licking  at  every  object,  jumping  fireguards  and  even  rivers 
in  its  path.  Behind  it  the  prairie  roared  and  crackled,  for 


AN  EARLY  PRAIRIE  FIRE.     (From  Catlin.) 

the  headfire  had  no  time  to  burn  the  grass  in  its  course.  It 
touched  it  with  the  torch  and  rushed  on  to  find  fresh  fuel. 
The  level  prairie  looked  like  a  lake  of  fire  with  a  lurid  cloud 
of  smoke  rising  above  it.  It  was  a  grand  sight,  but  terrible 
to  the  settler  whose  farm  lay  in  its  path. 

The  only  way  to  protect  against  a  high  headfire  was  to 
start  a  backfire  some  distance  ahead  of  it  which  would  burn 
away  the  grass  and  leave  nothing  to  feed  it.  The  backfire 


144  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

was  set  at  the  edge  of  a  fireguard  facing  the  wind,  or  it  was 
set  on  the  open  prairie  by  carrying  a  line  of  fire  along  a  few 
feet  at  a  time  and  whipping  out  the  side  of  the  fire  away  from 
the  wind.  In  either  case  the  backfire  burned  slowly  against 
the  wind  until  it  met  the  headfire.  In  a  furious  gale  a  back- 
fire was  hard  to  control  for  it  would  get  away  from  the  men. 

In  October,  1871,  great  fires  burned  along  the  Nebraska 
frontier.  There  had  been  no  rain  for  weeks.  The  grass  was 
so  dry  that  it  seemed  to  explode  when  touched  with  flame. 
A  great  wind  from  the  west  drove  the  fires  from  the  unsettled 
open  prairie  upon  the  settlements.  Fireguards  failed  to  stop 
the  flames.  The  Blue  River  was  jumped  by  the  fire  in  many 
places.  Thick  smoke  hung  over  the  region.  Hundreds  of 
homesteaders  lost  their  houses  and  crops  and  some  lost  their 
lives.  In  other  years  there  were  also  great  losses. 

In  spite  of  all  these  dangers  every  year  new  fields  were 
plowed  and  the  settlements  pushed  farther  west  until  the 
fires  could  no  longer  range  across  the  country.  The  days  of 
the  great  prairie  fires  which  swept  the  whole  state  are  past 
forever.  The  children  of  to-day  and  of  the  future  will  never 
see  in  Nebraska  the  miles  on  miles  of  blazing  prairie  with 
headfires  rushing  fiercely  down  upon  their  homes  like  those 
seen  by  their  parents  when  they  were  children,  and  thus  they 
will  miss  one  of  the  grandest  and  most  thrilling  sights  so 
familiar  to  the  children  of  the  pioneers. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Do  you  enjoy  an  outdoor  fire?     When  do  you  enjoy  it  most  and  why? 

2.  How  do  you  think  a  great  prairie  fire  driven  by  a  head  wind  was  regarded 

by  the  pioneer  children?     By  their  parents? 

3.  What  effect  had  the  great  prairie  fires  of  the  early  days  upon  Nebraska? 

4.  Should  you  rather  live  in  a  pioneer  or  a  long  settled  country?     Why? 


THE  ARROW  THAT  PINNED  TWO  BOYS 
TOGETHER 

TWO  boys,  Nathaniel  and  Robert,  were  helping  their 
father,  George  Martin,  in  the  hayfield  one  day  in  Au- 
gust, 1864.  Their  ranch  was  in  the  broad  valley  of  the  Platte 
in  Hall  County,  about  eighteen  miles  southwest  of  Grand 
Island. 

Suddenly  the  hills  along  the  valley  were  covered  with 
Sioux  and  Cheyenne  Indians.  It  was  the  time  of  the  great 
Indian  raid  of  1864.  The  father  and  boys  started  for  the 
shelter  of  the  log  house  and  barns  at  the  ranch.  The  two 
boys  were  mounted  on  one  pony  while  the  father  drove  a 
team  hauling  a  load  of  hay.  Before  they  could  reach  the 
buildings  the  Indians,  shooting  a  shower  of  arrows,  circled 
about  the  boys.  One  of  the  arrows  struck  Nathaniel  in  the 
arm  and  buried  itself  in  Robert 's  back,  pinning  the  two  boys 
together.  Both  fell  from  the  pony.  Two  or  three  Indians 
rode  up.  One  drew  his  knife  to  take  their  scalps.  Another 
Indian  said  in  English,  "Let  the  boys  alone,"  and  they  were 
left  there  for  dead. 

Shots  were  fired  from  the  ranch  and  the  Indians  rode 
away,  taking  with  them  some  of  Mr.  Martin 's  stock.  After 
they  had  gone  the  boys  were  brought  in,  the  arrow  was  cut 
from  their  bodies  and  their  mother  cared  for  them.  Both 
of  them  lived  to  be  grown  men  and  the  story  of  the  two  boys 
who  were  pinned  together  by  an  Indian  arrow  is  one  of  the 
stories  told  many  times  on  the  frontier. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  did  the  Indians  not  scalp  these  boys? 

2.  What  difference  between  farm  and  ranch  life  in  these  early  years  and 

now? 

145 


TWO  SIOUX  CHIEFS 

Sioux  nation  was  the  strongest  Indian  nation  in  the 
West.  Its  people  roamed  the  country  from  the  forests 
and  lakes  of  northern  Minnesota  across  the  plains  of  North 
and  South  Dakota  to  the  mountains  of  Wyoming  and  south- 
ward over  the  plains  of  western  Nebraska  as  far  as  the 
Republican  River.  There  were  many  tribes  and  bands  of 
the  Sioux  nation.  Two  of  these  tribes,  the  Brule  and  Oglala, 
among  the  most  warlike  of  the  Sioux  nation,  claimed  western 
Nebraska  as  their  hunting  ground  and  home.  They  also 
claimed  western  South  Dakota  and  eastern  Wyoming. 
Each  of  these  tribes  numbered  about  seven  or  eight  thou- 
sand. In  the  summer  they  hunted  buffalo  in  the  valleys  of 
the  Platte  and  the  Republican  rivers  and  in  the  winter  they 
found  shelter,  fuel  and  game  in  the  region  of  the  Black  Hills 
and  Big  Horn  Mountains. 

Two  great  chiefs,  Red  Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail,  of  the 
Oglala  and  Brule  tribes,  stand  out  above  all  others  in  the 
history  of  the  Sioux  nation.  Their  names  are  forever  famous 
in  the  story  of  Nebraska.  Their  lives  covered  the  critical 
periods  in  the  annals  of  their  people,  from  early  contact  with 
fur  traders,  through  the  great  wars  to  the  final  settlement  of 
the  Sioux  nation  in  its  present  home. 

Red  Cloud  was  born  at  Blue  Creek  in  what  is  now  Garden 
county,  Nebraska,  in  May,  1821.  Spotted  Tail  was  born  in 
1823,  in  Wyoming.  Red  Cloud's  family  belonged  to  the 
Bad  Face  band  of  the  Oglala  tribe.  Spotted  Tail  was  a 
member  of  the  Brule  tribe.  Both  began  life  as  common 
warriors  and  became  chiefs  through  superior  qualities  of 
mind  and  body. 

The  history  of  the  Oglala  and  Brule  Sioux  since  they  were 
first  known  to  white  men  may  be  divided  into  three  periods. 

"  146 


TWO  SIOUX  CHIEFS 


147 


RED  CLOUD 


The  first  period  extends  from  the  earliest  exploration  of  their 
country  by  the  white  men  to  their  first  treaty  with  the 
United  States  at  Fort  Laramie  in  1851,  and  covers  the  child- 
hood and  youth  of  Red  Cloud  and 
of  Spotted  Tail.  The  second  period 
extends  from  the  Fort  Laramie 
treaty  of  1851,  to  the  Fort  Laramie 
treaty  of  1868,  and  covers  the  ma- 
ture manhood  of  each  of  these  two 
great  chiefs.  The  third  period 
reaches  from  the  Fort  Laramie  treaty 
of  1868,  to  the  death  of  Red  Cloud 
December  10,  1909,  and  covers  the 
old  age  of  each  of  these  noted 
Indians. 

During  the  first  period  the  Oglalas  and  Brules  were  at 
peace  with  the  white  people  but  were  at  war  with  nearly  all 
the  Indian  tribes  around  them.  The  Sioux  were  new-comers 
in  that  beautiful  region  where  the  mountains  and  plains  meet 
and  were  driving  out  the  earlier  inhabitants,  the  Crows,  the 
Snakes,  the  Utes  and  the  Pawnees.  In  these  early  wars  with 
their  Indian  neighbors  Red  Cloud  and  Spotted  TaiJ  became 
leaders.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  Red  Cloud  went  on  his  first 
war  party  and  came  back  victorious.  During  the  next  ten 
years  both  young  men  made  names  for  themselves  not  only 
for  daring,  but  for  good  luck,  which  counts  for  much  more  in 
an  Indian  camp. 

Two  events  of  this  period  gave  Red  Cloud  fame  in  the 
camps  of  the  Sioux.  The  first  was  in  1849,  when  he  crossed 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  as  Caesar  and  Napoleon  crossed  the 
Alps,  leading  a  war  party  into  the  heart  of  the  Shoshoni 
country  and  bringing  back  many  scalps  and  ponies.  The 
other  was  in  1850,  when  an  old  quarrel  broke  out  anew  in  the 
Bad  Face  band  and  Red  Cloud,  who  was  a  leader  of  the 
younger  men,  shot  and  killed  Bull  Bear,  then  the  most  noted 
chief  in  the  band. 


148  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

At  this  time  a  new  and  strange  experience  came  into  the 
lives  of  the  Brule  and  Oglala  Sioux,  overshadowing  all  their 
future  and  filling  the  minds  of  their  wisest  chiefs  with  anxious 
concern.  This  was  the  great  migration  over  the  Oregon 
Trail  to  Oregon,  California,  and  Utah.  At  first  there  were 
only  occasional  trains  of  a  few  wagons  each.  After  the  dis- 
covery of  gold  in  California  the  trail  became  crowded  with 
thousands  of  wagons,  and  with  men,  women  and  children. 
These  emigrants  shot  the  buffalo  and  other  game  without 
asking  leave  of  the  Indians.  It  was  evident  that  if  the 
white  men  kept  coming,  the  game  after  a  time  would  be 
gone  and  the  Sioux,  who  lived  entirely  by  hunting,  would 
starve. 

To  prevent  trouble  the  first  council  with  the  Oglalas, 
Brules,  and  other  plains  tribes  was  held  on  Horse  Creek  near 
Fort  Laramie  in  1851.  A  treaty  was  made  by  which  the 
United  States  confirmed  to  each  tribe  the  land  occupied  by 
it.  All  the  tribes  agreed  to  the  division  of  the  land  made  by 
this  treaty,  so  that  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
plains  Indians  all  the  great  hunting  ground  between  the  Mis- 
souri River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains  was  divided  among 
them.  All  the  Indians  agreed  that  "The  Great  Road" 
along  the  Platte  and  across  the  mountains  should  be  free  and 
open  for  the  white  people,  and  the  United  States  agreed  to 
pay  to  the  Indians  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  goods  each  year 
for  fifty  years  for  the  use  of  this  road  through  their  country. 
The  Indians  agreed  not  to  rob  or  attack  the  white  people 
upon  this  road,  and  the  United  States  agreed  to  keep  the 
white  people  from  going  elsewhere  in  the  Indian  country 
without  permission  of  the  Indians.  When  the  treaty  was 
sent  to  Washington  the  United  States  Senate  changed  the 
payments  of  the  fifty  thousand  dollars  from  fifty  years  to 
ten  years.  The  Indians  never  agreed  to  the  change.  The 
white  people  continued  to  use  the  great  road  and  the  United 
States  sent  out  each  year  the  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  goods 
to  pay  the  Indians  for  the  use  of  it.  Neither  Red  Cloud  nor 


TWO  SIOUX  CHIEFS  149 

Spotted  Tail  signed  this  first  treaty  with  the  Oglalas  and 
Brules.  They  had  not  yet  become  chiefs. 

The  first  goods  to  pay  for  the  use  of  the  Oregon  Trail 
under  this  treaty  arrived  near  Fort  Laramie  in  the  summer 
of  1854.  All  the  plains  Sioux  assembled  to  receive  their 
portion.  Before  the  agent  came  from  St.  Louis  to  distribute 
the  goods,  peace  between  the  white  people  and  the  Sioux  was 
broken  by  the  affair  of  the  Mormon  cow  and  the  killing  of 
Lieutenant  Grattan  and  party,  the  story  of  which  is  told 
elsewhere  in  this  book.  Red  Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail  were 
in  the  great  Sioux  camp  at  that  time  and  shared  in  the 
general  feeling  of  indignation  among  the  Oglalas  and  Brules 
at  the  killing  of  their  great  chief,  The  Bear,  by  Lieutenant 
Grattan.  In  later  years  Red  Cloud  often  referred  to  this  in- 
cident, saying  that  the  white  men  made  The  Bear  chief  of  all 
the  Sioux  and  then  killed  him,  hence  it  was  not  safe  for  any 
one  to  hold  that  office. 

General  Harney  punished  the  Brule  Sioux  severely  at  the 
battle  of  Ash  Hollow  or  Blue  Creek  in  what  is  now  Garden 
County,  September  3,  1855,  for  the  killing  of  Lieutenant 
Grattan  and  his  party.  Quiet  was  restored  on  the  frontier. 
Emigrant  travel  went  on  over  the  Oregon  Trail  and  the 
goods  to  pay  for  its  use  were  sent  each  year  to  Fort  Laramie 
and  there  given  out  to  the  Indians.  The  Sioux  continued 
the  wars  against  their  Indian  enemies,  especially  the  Paw- 
nees on  the  east  and  the  Crows  on  the  west.  Red  Cloud  and 
Spotted  Tail  both  grew  in  reputation  as  leaders. 

Gold  was  found  near  Pike's  Peak  in  1859.  Soon  thou- 
sands of  gold  hunters  filled  the  foothills  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, driving  out  the  game.  All  the  Indians  were  restless  at 
the  invasion  of  their  hunting  grounds.  In  1862  came  the 
great  Sioux  uprising  in  Minnesota.  The  Oglala  and  Brule 
Sioux  were  hundreds  of  miles  away,  but  their  hearts  were  with 
their  kinsmen  in  the  north.  They  knew  that  a  great  war 
was  going  on  between  the  white  men  of  the  North  and  the 
white  men  of  the  South.  They  were  urged  by  messengers  to 


150  STORIES  OF   NEBRASKA 

go  on  the  warpath  and  drive  all  the  white  men  out  of  their 
country  before  they  became  too  strong  to  be  driven  out. 
Councils  of  all  the  plains  Indians  were  held  in  1862  and  1863. 
The  greatest  of  these  was  held  May  1,  1863,  on  the  old 
council  ground  at  the  mouth  of  Horse  creek  near  the  Ne- 
braska-Wyoming line.  There  were  plenty  of  Indians  who 
favored  a  general  massacre  of  the  whites,  but  the  plan  was 
postponed  for  another  year. 

In  August,  1864,  the  Sioux  and  Cheyenne  war  broke  out 
all  along  the  frontier  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas.  All  of  the 
plains  tribes  were  in  sympathy  with  the  war,  but  not  all  were 
active  in  it.  While  this  war  was  going  on  a  new  gold  field 
was  found  in  Montana.  The  most  direct  route  to  the  new 
gold  mines  was  over  the  Oregon  Trail  to  Fort  Laramie  and 
from  Fort  Laramie  north  through  the  Powder  River  country 
to  the  mines.  A  commission  came  from  Washington  to  Fort 
Laramie  in  the  summer  of  1866,  to  make  a  bargain  with  the 
Sioux  for  this  new  road.  Spotted  Tail  and  the  Brules  were 
willing  to  make  the  agreement.  They  did  not  hunt  in  that 
region.  Red  Cloud  and  the  Oglalas  refused  because  the 
Powder  River  country  was  their  best  buffalo  hunting  ground. 
They  had  conquered  it  from  the  Crows.  They  had  seen  the 
white  people  pouring  in  everywhere,  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road was  being  built,  the  buffalo  were  being  killed  off  and 
even  while  they  were  holding  the  council  at  Fort  Laramie 
regiments  of  soldiers  arrived  there  who  were  to  make  the  new 
forts  on  the  new  road.  The  Oglala  chiefs  rose  to  leave  the 
council.  As  they  did  so  Red  Cloud  placed  his  hand  upon  his 
rifle  and  said, "  In  this  and  in  the  Great  Spirit  I  put  my  trust." 
The  new  roads  were  opened  and  the  forts  were  built  in  the 
summer  of  1866.  Red  Cloud  became  the  leader  of  the  war 
against  the  whites.  Every  day  came  news  of  fighting  on  the 
road  to  the  Montana  mines.  December  21,  1866,  Red 
Cloud  and  his  warriors  drew  Colonel  Fetterman  and  ninety- 
six  soldiers  into  an  ambuscade  near  Fort  Phil  Kearny  in 
Wyoming,  and  every,  white  man  was  killed. 


TWO  SIOUX   CHIEFS  151 

There  was  an  outcry  in  the  country  against  the  invasion 
of  Red  Cloud 's  country  without  his  consent.  A  great  peace 
commission  was  named  at  Washington  with  General  Sher- 
man at  its  head.  This  commission  came  to  Fort  Laramie 
in  1868,  and  made  the  treaty  called  "  The  Great  Fort  Laramie 
Treaty  of  1868."  For  more  than  forty  years  this  treaty  was 
regarded  by  the  Sioux  as  the  great  charter  of  their  rights. 
The  Sioux  orators  knew  it  in  their  own  language  by  heart 
and  repeated  it  in  all  their  speeches  in  the  great  councils  or 
around  the  tepee  fire.  It  has  been  to  them  what  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  and  the  Constitution  are  to  the  Ameri- 
can people.  The  treaty  of  1868  provided  that  every  Sioux 
over  four  years  of  age  should  receive  from  the  United  States 
every  year  one  suit  of  clothes,  ten  dollars  in  money,  and 
rations  at  the  rate  of  one  pound  of  meat  and  one  pound  of 
flour  for  each  day.  To  every  Indian  who  began  farming,  the 
United  States  would  issue  one  cow,  one  yoke  of  oxen,  and 
twenty  dollars  in  money.  The  new  road  through  the  Pow- 
der River  hunting  grounds  was  to  be  given  up  and  all  the 
soldiers  from  there  withdrawn.  The  Sioux  were  to  have  the 
right  to  hunt  upon  the  Platte  and  Republican  as  long  as 
buffalo  were  there.  Schools  were 
to  be  established  for  all  the  Sioux 
children.  On  their  part  the  Sioux 
agreed  to  keep  peace  with  the  whites 
and  to  permit  the  Union  Pacific  road 
to  be  built. 

The  treaty  of  1868  was  regarded 
as  a  great  victory  for  Red  Cloud. 
He  had  beaten  the  white  men  in 
battle.  They  had  abandoned  their 

fr>H-c     nnrl      Wt      him      Vii«     Vnintino-      SPOTTED  TAIL.     (From  photo 

LRg       collection  ofA.E.  Sheldon.) 

grounds.     Yet  Red  Cloud  was  one 

of  the  last  of  the  Indians  to  sign  the  treaty.  Spotted  Tail 
and  other  Brule  chiefs  "  touched  the  pen,"  as  the  Indians 
call  it,  on  April  29,  1868.  May  25th  many  of  the  Oglala 


152 


STORIES   OF  NEBRASKA 


RUINS  OF  OLD  RED  CLOUD  AGENCY,  1911. 
(From  photograph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


chiefs,  including  Sitting  Bull,  Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses 
and  American  Horse,  signed.  Red  Cloud  sent  word  that  he 
would  not  sign  until  the  soldiers  were  sent  away.  In  August, 

the  forts  were  aban- 
doned and  on  Novem- 
ber 6,  1868,  Red  Cloud 
signed  the  treaty  with 
Father  De  Smet  as  a 
witness. 

The  signing  of  the 
treaty  of  1868  ended 
the  Sioux  wars  for  Red 
Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail. 
From  that  time  each 
of  these  chiefs  tried  to 
secure  the  rights  of  his  people  in  council  rather  than  in  war. 
Since  the  two  tribes  were  now  to  be  fed  and  clothed  by  the 
government,  a  place  was  to  be  selected  where  this  should 
be  done.  The  chiefs  visited  Washington  in  1870,  and  met 
President  Grant.  In  1871  the  old  Red  Cloud  Agency  was 
located  on  the  north  bank  of  the  North  Platte  River  near 
the  Nebraska- Wyoming  line  about  a  mile  from  where  Henry, 
Nebraska,  now  is.  Here  the  Oglalas  and  Brules  were  fed 
in  1872. 

In  1873  the  Sioux  Indians  moved  from  the  valley  of  the 
North  Platte  to  the  beautiful  White  River  valley  in  north- 
western Nebraska.  Here  two  agencies  were  established,  one 
called  Red  Cloud  Agency  near  the  present  site  of  Fort 
Robinson,  the  other  called  Spotted  Tail  Agency  about  forty 
miles  northeast,  near  the  junction  of  Beaver  Creek  with  the 
White  River.  For  the  next  five  years  the  valley  about  these 
two  frontier  posts  was  the  scene  of  more  exciting  events  than 
was  any  other  part  of  Nebraska. 

Gold  was  found  in  the  Black  Hills  in  1875.  By  the 
treaty  of  1868  the  Black  Hills  belonged  to  the  Sioux  and 
white  men  were  to  be  kept  out.  White  men  would  not  be 


TWO  SIOUX  CHIEFS  153 

kept  out  after  gold  had  been  discovered.  Many  of  the  Sioux 
under  Sitting  Bull  and  Crazy  Horse  went  on  the  warpath 
again.  The  Sioux  under  Red  Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail  were 
fed  by  the  United  States.  The  two  old  chiefs  remained  at 
peace,  but  hundreds  of  their  young  men  took  rations  from 
the  United  States  and  then  slipped  away  under  cover  of  night 
to  join  the  hostile  Sioux  in  the  north.  In  1875,  Congress 
voted  not  to  feed  the  Sioux  according  to  the  Fort  Laramie 
treaty  of  1868  unless  they  remained  north  of  the  Niobrara 
River.  In  May  of  that  year,  Red  Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail 
went  to  Washington  again  and  made  an  agreement  for 
$50,000  a  year  to  give  up  their  hunting  privilege  south  of  the 
Niobrara.  Only  half  of  this  sum  was  paid.  Red  Cloud  was 
urged  many  times  by  the  warriors  who  had  fought  under  him 
ten  years  before  to  lead  them  again  against  the  whites.  He 
steadily  refused.  He  had  been  i,n  the  East  and  seen  the  cities 
full  of  white  people.  He  had  sent  his  young  men  over  all  the 
hunting  grounds  and  he  knew  that  there  were  not  enough 
buffalo  to  feed  his  people  through  another  campaign. 

June  25,  1876,  was  the  date  of  the  greatest  victory  over 
the  whites  in  the  history  of  the  Sioux  nation.  General 
Custer,  the  boldest  Indian  fighter  in  the  country,  with  260 
men  was  cut  off  at  the  battle  of  the  Little  Big  Horn  in 
Montana.  The  news  was  brought  into  the  Red  Cloud  and 
Spotted  Tail  agencies  by  Indian  runners.  There  was  in- 
tense excitement  among  the  Oglalas  and  Brules  and  it  was 
feared  that  all  would  join  the  hostile  Sioux.  Commissioners 
came  from  Washington.  A  great  council  was  held  in  the 
White  River  valley  in  August  and  September.  A  new  treaty 
was  made  September  23,  1876,  signed  by  Red  Cloud  and 
Spotted  Tail  and  the  other  chiefs.  The  Black  Hills  were 
sold  to  the  white  people  and  the  United  States  agreed  to 
issue  the  Indians  more  beef,  more  flour  and  coffee,  sugar  and 
beans,  until  they  were  able  to  support  themselves.  The 
Sioux  agreed  to  give  up  all  their  claims  to  Nebraska  and  to 
remove  to  South  Dakota,  where  new  agencies  would  be 


154  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

established.  In  spite  of  the  signing  of  this  new  treaty  by 
Red  Cloud,  General  Crook  ordered  the  camp  of  Red  Cloud 
on  Chadron  Creek  to  be  taken  by  surprise  on  October  24th. 
All  the  ponies  of  Red  Cloud's  band  were  taken  and  driven 
away  where  the  owners  never  saw  them  again.  This  was 
the  hardest  blow  Red  Cloud  received  in  his  long  career.  It 
was  an  act  of  war  in  violation  of  agreements  by  the  govern- 


FT.  ROBINSON,  Sioux  COUNTY,  NEBRASKA.     SITE  OF  RED  CLOUD  AGENCY 

AND  SCENE  OF  IMPORTANT  INCIDENTS  IN  Sioux  INDIAN  WAR. 

(From  photograph  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 

ment.     Its  object  was  to  keep  Red  Cloud's  warriors  from 
helping  the  hostile  Indians. 

The  Sioux  soon  had  reason  to  see  Red  Cloud 's  wisdom  in 
refusing  to  go  again  on  the  warpath.  General  Crook  gave 
the  hostile  Sioux  no  time  to  hunt,  eat  or  sleep.  In  March, 
1877,  Spotted  Tail  went  on  a  mission  to  the  camp  of  the 
hostile  Sioux  and  over  2,200  of  them  came  in  and  surrendered 
at  Red  Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail  agencies.  In  May  of  the 


TWO  SIOUX  CHIEFS  155 

same  year  Crazy  Horse,  with  his  band  of  889  ragged  and 
starving  followers,  joined  them. 

Crazy  Horse  was  killed  on  September  5th,  by  a  bayonet- 
thrust  while  resisting  an  attempt  to  put  him  into  prison. 
Red  Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail  made  their  third  trip  to  Wash- 
ington in  the  same  month  to  arrange  for  the  future  welfare  of 
their  people. 

On  October  27,  1877,  the  Sioux  bade  a  final  farewell  to 
Nebraska  as  their  home.  A  great  caravan  of  over  5,000 
Indians,  with  2,000  cattle  and  two  companies  of  cavalry 
started,  on  its  march  down  the  White  River  valley  for  its 
winter  camp  on  the  Missouri  River  in  South  Dakota.  While 
on  the  march  2,000  of  the  hostile  Sioux  who  had  surrendered, 
carrying  the  corpse  of  Crazy  Horse  in  a  buffalo  robe,  broke 
into  the  line  and  tried  in  vain  to  stampede  the  Oglalas  and 
Brules. 

The  new  Brule  agency  established  in  1878  was  named 
Rosebud,  and  that  for  the  Oglalas  established  in  1879  was 
named  Pine  Ridge.  It  was  significant  that  they  were  not 
named  for  the  chiefs,  as  the  old  agencies  had  been.  A  new 
era  began  which  was  one  of  struggle  between  the  Indian 
agents  and  the  old  chiefs.  It  was  the  agents'  aim  to  break 
down  the  power  and  authority  of  the  chief  and  to  deal  .di- 
rectly with  each  Indian.  This  struggle  lasted  for  twenty- 
five  years.  Spotted  Tail  saw  its  end  sooner  than  did  his 
great  fellow  chief,  for  on  August  5,  1881,  he  was  killed  by 
Crow  Dog,  an  Indian  of  his  own  tribe.  The  agent  at  Rose- 
bud, who  had  just  been  engaged  in  a  contest  with  Spotted 
Tail,  wrote  of  him  these  words:  " Spotted  Tail  was  a  true 
friend  to  the  whites.  His  influence  was  always  on  the  side 
of  law  and  order,  and  to  him  is  greatly  due  the  peace  which 
now  exists." 

Red  Cloud  survived  his  old  comrade  for  many  years.  He 
was  never  reconciled  to  the  new  system  which  broke  down 
the  authority  of  the  chief.  He  opposed  many  of  the  new 
ways  and  the  little  frame  house  a  mile  from  the  Pine  Ridge 


156 


STORIES   OF  NEBRASKA 


agency  buildings  was  the  scene  of  many  earnest  councils 
during  the  years  which  followed. 

He  lived  to  see  his  people  throw  off  the  blanket  and  adopt 
the  white  men's  clothes.  He  lived  to  see  the  Sioux  sun 
dance  abolished  in  1884.  He  lived  to  see  the  Oglalas  and 
Brules  settled  in  log  and  frame  houses,  each  family  on  its 
own  land.  He  lived  to  see  all  the  Sioux  children  going  to 
school,  speaking  both  the  English  and  Sioux  languages.  He 
lived  to  take  part  in  1889  in  another  great  council  with  the 
United  States  and  to  sign  a  new  agreement,  which  gave 
cattle,  tools  and  seed  to  all  Indians  who  would  farm.  He 
lived  long  enough  to  receive,  in  1889,  $28,000  for  the  ponies 
taken  from  his  band  in  1876  by  General  Crook.  He  lived  to 
see  the  ghost  dancing  of  1890  and  to  hear  the  echoes  of  the 
last  Sioux  battle  at  Wounded  Knee  in  December  of  that  year. 
He  lived  to  see  an  order  sent  out  in  January,  1902,  stopping 
the  rations  of  all  able-bodied  Sioux  men  and  requiring  them 
to  go  to  work  on  the  roads  and  irrigation  ditches  at  $1.25  for 
an  eight-hour  day.  He  lived  to  see  this  order  enforced  in 
spite  of  the  orators  who  pointed  to  the  Fort  Laramie  treaty 
of  1868.  He  lived  to  see  the  great  Sioux  reservation  sur- 
veyed and  separate  farms  of  320 
acres  each  chosen  by  heads  of  Indian 
families,  with  160  acres  for  each  child 
over  18  and  80  acres  for  each  child 
under  18.  He  lived  long  enough  to 
have  his  eyesight  fade  away,  leav- 
ing him  in  total  darkness.  He  lived 
long  enough  to  know  that  nearly  all 
of  the  friends  of  his  youth  and  early 
manhood  were  gone  before,  to  know 
that  the  old  ways  were  changed. 
He  reached  the  end  of  his  long 


RED  CLOUD'S  TENT  AT  PINE 
RIDGE,  1904 


earthly  sojourn  December  10,  1909,  the  last  of  the  long 
line  of  famous  Indian  chiefs  who,  in  council  and  on  the  war- 


TWO  SIOUX  CHIEFS  157 

path,  had  struggled  bravely  against  the  inevitable  advance 
of  the  white  man  upon  this  continent. 


QUESTIONS 

1 .  What  right  had  each  tribe  of  Indians  to  the  land  it  claimed? 

2.  What  is  "good  luck"  and  why  did  the  Indians  believe  so  strongly  in  it? 

3.  Why  did  the  Sioux  oppose  the  settlement  of  their  country  by  the  white 

men?     Why  they  more  than  the  Pawnee  or  Omaha? 

4.  How  could  the  white  men  and  the  Sioux  have  lived  at  peace  with  each 

other? 

5.  What  do  you  think  of  the  Fort  Laramie  treaty  of  1868?     Was  it  fair  to 

both  Indians  and  white  men? 

6.  Which  do  you  more  admire,  Spotted  Tail  or  Red  Cloud?     Why?     Compare 

them. 

7.  Did  the  United  States  keep  its  treaties  with  the  Sioux? 

8.  Why  did  the  government  try  to  break  the  power  of  the  chiefs  and  deal 

directly  with  each  Indian? 

9.  In  what  sense  are  the  Sioux  Nebraska  Indians? 


GREAT  STORMS 

NOTHING  is  more  terrible  during  the  settlement  of  a  new 
country  than  a  great  storm.  A  long  severe  winter  is 
full  of  danger  even  to  the  bravest  and  hardiest  pioneers. 
Thousands  have  died  of  cold  and  starvation  in  the  settle- 
ment of  this  country.  Every  state  has  its  stories  of  great 
storms  and  the  hardships  and  suffering  which  they  brought 
to  the  people. 

Three  great  storms  stand  out  above  all  other  storms  in  the 
history  of  Nebraska. 

The  first  of  these  began  December  1,  1856,  with  rain  from 
the  southwest,  but  soon  the  wind  changed  to  the  northwest 
and  became  fiercely  cold.  The  snow  fall  which  followed  was 
the  deepest  ever  known  since  the  settlement  of  Nebraska. 
It  was  five  feet  on  the  level,  and  in  drifts  far  deeper.  This 
first  storm  lasted  three  days.  Storm  after  storm  followed 
during  the  winter.  As  one  writer  of  that  time  says:  "A 
terrible  cold  winter  set  in  December  1,  1856,  freezing  into 
ninety  solid  blocks  of  ice  all  the  days  of  December,  January 
and  February." 

There  were  very  few  settlers  in  Nebraska  in  those  days. 
Most  of  them  were  in  the  counties  near  the  Missouri  River. 
Every  one  of  these  counties  has  its  old  settlers '  stories  of  the 
''hard  winter"  of  1857.  In  Richardson  County  the  first 
December  storm  drove  twenty  head  of  cattle  into  a  valley 
and  walled  them  in  with  drifting  snow.  When  they  were 
found  by  their  owner  in  February  most  of  them  were  dead, 
the  few  survivors  having  fed  on  the  branches  of  trees.  In 
Otoe  County  deer  ran  through  the  streets  of  Nebraska  City 
pursued  by  the  hungry  wolves  and  many  settlers  lost  their 
lives.  In  Dodge  County  the  sun  failed  to  show  his  face  for 
two  months.  The  ravines,  thirty  feet  deep,  were  filled  with 

158 


GREAT  STORMS  159 

snow.  A  settler  was  lost  in  the  December  storm.  His 
funeral  was  held  in  April,  after  the  snow  had  melted.  In 
Hurt  County  snow  fell  for  six  days  and  nights  without  stop- 
ping. Settlers  would  have  starved  were  it  not  for  the  game 
which  they  caught  in  the  snowdrifts.  In  Cuming  County 
the  creeks  and  rivers  were  buried  by  the  snow.  The  set- 
tlers traveled  on  foot  to  the  Missouri  River  and  hauled  back 
upon  hand  sleds  goods  to  keep  their  families  from  perishing. 
All  the  ravines  and  hollows  were  drifted  full.  The  timber 
along  the  streams  was  rilled  with  deer,  elk  and  antelope, 
driven  in  from  the  prairie.  One  settler  killed  over  seventy 
with  an  axe.  The  crust  of  snow  would  bear  the  weight  of  a 
man,  but  these  animals  with  their  sharp  feet  cut  through 
and  were  helpless.  On  the  Oregon  trail  the  snow  lay  two  feet 
deep  from  October  to  May  between  Fort  Kearney  and  Fort 
Laramie  and  the  valleys  were  filled  with  the  drifts.  The 
general  testimony  of  all  the  old  settlers  and  the  records  in- 
dicate that  the  title  ''hard  winter"  belongs  to  the  winter 
of  1856-57.  In  no  winter  since  has  the  snow  been  so  deep, 
so  badly  drifted,  or  remained  so  long  as  in  that  winter. 

The  second  great  Nebraska  storm  came  at  the  end  of 
winter,  instead  of  the  beginning.  It  had  been  raining  on 
Easter  Sunday,  April  13,  1873.  Just  before  dark  the  wind 
changed  from  the  southwest  to  the  northwest,  the  rain 
changed  to  sleet,  and  the  sleet  to  fine  snow.  At  daybreak 
on  the  14th,  the  air  was  filled  with  what  seemed  solid  snow. 
It  was  so  wet  and  driven  so  swiftly  before  the  wind  that  it 
was  impossible  to  face  it.  All  day  Monday,  and  Monday 
night,  Tuesday,  and  Tuesday  night,  the  storm  increased  in 
fury.  Dugouts,  sod  houses,  and  stables  were  buried  in  snow- 
drifts. Nearly  all  of  the  stock  in  some  counties  was  frozen 
to  death.  There  were  many  cases  where  settlers  took  horses, 
cows,  pigs  and  chickens  into  their  houses,  where  all  lived  to- 
gether until  the  storm  passed.  One  settler  remembers  that 
the  snow  was  as  fine  as  flour  and  was  driven  so  fiercely  before 
the  wind  that  it  found  every  crevice  and  filled  the  stables  un- 


160  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

til  the  cattle,  tramping  to  keep  it  down,  had  their  backs 
forced  up  through  the  roofs.  Many  settlers  perished  in  this 
storm.  How  many  we  do  not  know,  for  no  perfect  record 
was  kept ;  but  nearly  every  county  had  its  victims. 

One  of  the  true  stories  of  this  storm  is  that  of  the  Cooper 
family,  then  living  about  ten  miles  from  St.  Paul,  Howard 
County.  The  mother  and  two  daughters,  Lizzie  and  Emma, 
were  the  only  ones  at  home  Sunday  when  the  storm  came, 
the  father  and  son  being  away.  Mrs.  Cooper  was  not  well 
and  went  to  bed  early.  The  two  girls  sat  up  keeping  fire  in 
the  fireplace.  The  wind  blew  fiercer  every  hour,  sifting  the 
fine  snow  into  the  house.  Then  came  a  furious  blast  which 
blew  the  door  open,  scattered  the  live  coals  about  the  room 
and  set  the  house  on  fire.  While  the  two  girls  were  putting 
out  the  fire  another  fierce  gust  tore  off  the  roof  and  left  them 
in  darkness  with  the  snow  filling  the  room. 

The  two  girls  piled  a  feather  tick  on  their  mother's  bed 
and  crept  under  it,  one  on  each  side,  with  their  shoes  and 
clothing  on. 

When  daylight  came  the  storm  was  still  raging  and  snow 
drifting  deep  in  the  room.  The  two  girls  decided  to  go  to  a 
neighbor 's  house  a  mile  away  and  get  help  for  their  mother. 
Telling  their  mother  to  have  courage  and  keep  quiet,  the 
girls  put  on  what  scanty  wraps  they  could  find  and  climbed 
over  the  wall  of  the  house,  for  the  snow  had  filled  the  door- 
way. As  soon  as  they  left  the  house  they  lost  their  way. 
The  fierce  cold  wind  had  no  mercy.  The  snow  cut  their 
faces.  Lizzie,  the  older  girl,  threw  her  arms  around  Emma 
crying,  "  Let  us  pray, "  and  in  the  snow  the  two  children  knelt 
and  asked  God  to  guide  them.  Then  Emma  said,  "Come  on. 
We  must  go  and  get  help  for  mother.  This  is  the  way." 

All  the  day  these  two  girls  wandered  in  the  storm*  Once 
they  found  a  dugout  where  potatoes  were  kept  and  beat  upon 
its  locked  door,  but  could  not  get  in.  Only  a  few  yards 
away  was  the  house,  but  when  they  tried  to  reach  it  they 
lost  their  way  and  again  wandered  on.  That  night  they 


GREAT  STORMS  161 

scooped  a  hole  in  the  snow  and  held  each  other  close  to  keep 
from  freezing. 

In  the  morning  Emma  tried  to  encourage  her  sister  to 
push  on.  She  rubbed  her  hands  and  beat  her  face  to  rouse 
her.  Lizzie  started,  but  fell  exhausted  and  died  in  the  snow 
with  her  sister  watching  over  her. 

When  she  knew  her  sister  was  dead,  Emma  pushed  on  to 
find  help  for  her  mother.  She  kept  saying  to  herself,  "I 
must  not  go  to  sleep.  I  must  not  go  to  sleep;"  for  she  had 
heard  that  when  one  was  freezing  to  go  to  sleep  was  to  die. 
So  she  kept  moving  on  all  through  that  day  and  the  next. 
Her  feet  became  frozen  and  her  clothes  were  torn,  but  she 
stumbled  on  and  fought  for  life.  On  Wednesday  the  sun 
came  out  and  she  saw  at  a  little  distance  the  neighbor's 
house  she  had  tried  so  long  to  reach. 

The  people  in  the  house  saw  her,  brought  her  in  and  cared 
for  her.  Her  first  words  to  them  were  for  her  mother. 
Searchers  found  the  mother  lying  frozen  to  death  a  short 
distance  from  her  home.  Emma  lived  to  womanhood  and 
became  Mrs.  Adolph  Goebel  of  New  York. 

The  third  and  last  great  storm  came  January  12,  1888. 
The  day  had  been  so  mild  that  men  went  about  in  their 
shirt-sleeves  and  cattle  grazed  in  the  fields.  The  air  was  as 
soft  and  hazy  as  in  Indian  summer.  All  over  the  state  men 
and  stock  were  abroad  in  the  fields  and  the  school-children 
played  out  of  doors.  Suddenly  the  wind  changed  to  the 
north,  blowing  more  furiously  each  minute  thick  blinding 
snow,  first  in  large  flakes  and  later  in  smaller  ones  fierce  as 
bullets  from  a  gun.  There  seemed  no  limit  to  the  fury  of  the 
wind,  nor  the  increasing  density  of  the  driven  snow.  Men 
driving  their  teams  could  not  see  the  horses'  heads.  The 
roads  were  blotted  out  and  travelers  staggered  blindly  on  not 
knowing  where  they  were  going.  The  storm,  and  the  intense 
cold  which  followed  lasted  three  days,  and  was  almost  imme- 
diately followed  by  another  fierce  storm.  It  was  two  weeks 
before  the  news  from  the  farms  and  ranches  began  slowly 


162  STORIES  OF   NEBRASKA 

to  come  into  the  newspaper  offices.  Then  it  was  learned  that 
the  loss  of  life  was  the  greatest  ever  known  in  the  West.  In 
Dakota  over  one  thousand  persons  were  reported  frozen  to 
death,  and  in  Nebraska  over  one  hundred.  The  wind  blew 
at  the  rate  of  fifty-six  miles  an  hour  and  the  mercury  fell 
to  thirty-four  degrees  below  zero.  In  Holt  County  alone 
more  than  twenty  people  lost  their  lives  and  one  half  of  the 
live  stock  in  the  county  perished. 

This  great  storm  of  1888  is  known  as  the  school-children 's 
storm.  Over  a  great  part  of  Nebraska  it  came  between 
three  and  four  o'clock,  just  as  the  children  were  starting 
from  the  schoolhouses  for  home.  Many  stories  of  heroism 
in  the  storm  are  recorded.  One  school-teacher,  Mrs.  Wilson, 
of  Runningwater,  South  Dakota,  started  from  the  school- 
house  with  nine  children.  All  were  found  frozen  to  death  on 
the  prairie  when  the  storm  was  over.  In  Dodge  County, 
Nebraska,  two  sisters,  thirteen  and  eight  years  old,  daughters 
of  Mrs.  Peter  Westphalen,  started  from  the  schoolhouse 
together.  Their  widowed  mother  watched  anxiously  for 
them  but  they  never  came.  Their  bodies  were  found  lying 
close  together  in  an  open  field  drifted  over  with  snow.  The 
older  girl  had  taken  off  her  wraps  and  put  them  on  her  little 
sister.  The  story  of  their  death  told  in  the  newspapers  at 
the  time  was  full  of  pathos.  These  verses  were  written  to 
their  memory: 

"I  can  walk  no  further,  sister,  I  am  weary,  cold  and  worn; 
You  go  on,  for  you  are  stronger;  they  will  find  me  in  the  morn." 
And  she  sank,  benumbed  and  weary,  with  a  sobbing  cry  of  woe, 
Dying  in  the  night  and  tempest;  dying  in  the  cruel  snow. 

"Try  to  walk  a  little  farther,  soon  we'll  see  the  gleaming  light, 
Let  me  fold  my  cloak  around  you,"  but  her  sister  cold  and  white 
With  the  snowdrift  for  a  pillow,  fell  in  dying  sleep 's  repose, 
While  the  snow  came  whirling,  sifting,  till  above  her  form  it  rose. 

Search  in  western  song  and  story,  and  discover  if  you  can, 

Braver,  grander,  nobler  action  in  the  history  of  man; 

Than  the  silent  heroism  of  the  child  who,  in  her  woe, 

Wrapped  her  cloak  about  her  sister,  as  she  struggled  through  the  snov:. 


GREAT  STORMS 


163 


PIONEER  SEEKING  SHELTER 


Three  young  women  school-teachers  became  famous  as 
Nebraska  heroines  of  this  storm.     They  were  Miss  Louise 
Royce  of  Plainview,  Pierce  County,  Miss  Etta  Shattuck  of 
Inman,     Holt   County, 
and  Miss  Minnie  Free- 
man   of    Mira    Valley, 
Valley    County.     Miss 
Royce  started  from  her 
schoolhouse  with  three 
children  to  go  to  a  house 
only  a  few  yards  distant. 
They  lost  their  way  and 
the  children  were  frozen 
to  death.     Miss  Royce 
after  being  out  alt  night 
was  rescued  the  next  day  so  badly  frozen  that  one  of  her  limbs 
was  taken  off.     Miss  Shattuck  sent  her  children  safely  home 
at  the  first  signs  of  the  storm,  but  lost  her  own  way  and  wan- 
dered to  a  haystack.     She  crept  into  the  hay  and  lay  there 
three  days  before  she  was  discovered  by  a  farmer,  coming  to 
get  hay  for  his  stock.     Two  of  her  limbs  were  frozen  and  had 
to  be  taken  off.     She  was  removed  to  her  home  at  Seward, 
where  she  died  a  few  weeks  later.     Miss  Minnie  Freeman 
tied  her  school-children  together  in  single  file  with  herself 
at  the  head  of  the  line,  and  thus  guided  them  through  the 
storm  to  the  nearest  farm-house  where  all  were  sheltered. 
People  everywhere  read  with  deep  interest  the  story  of  the 
heroism  of  these  school-teachers.     Thousands  of  dollars  were 
raised  by  the  newspapers  to  reward  them  and  to  care  for  the 
other  victims. 

In  the  annals  of  Nebraska  will  always  be  remembered 
the  "Hard  Winter"  of  '57,  the  ''Easter  Storm"  of  73  and 
the  "Great  Blizzard"  of  '88. 


164  STORIES   OF   NEBRASKA 


QUESTIONS 

1.  What  difference  between  these  storms  and  the  storm  described  by  Whittier 

in  "Snowbound?" 

2.  Where  is  a  snowstorm  more  beautiful,  in  city  or  country?     Why? 

3.  Where  is  it  more  dangerous?     Why? 

4.  Why  are  children  so  fond  of  the  snow? 

5.  How  have  conditions  in  a  great  snowstorm  been  changed  since  the  pioneer 

days? 


OLD  FORT  KEARNEY 


OLD  FORT  KEARNEY  was  built  in  1847  at  Nebraska 
City.  It  was  a  log  blockhouse  on  the  hill  looking  down 
on  the  Missouri  River  and  soldiers  returning  across  the  plains 
from  the  war  with  Mexico  wintered 
there.  The  very  next  year  its  name 
was  taken  away  and  given  to  the 
new  fort  called  first  Fort  Childs, 
two  hundred  miles  west  in  the 
Platte  valley.  The  new  Fort  Kear- 
ney soon  came  to  be  the  old  Fort 
Kearney  in  the  minds  of  travelers 
across  the  plains.  It  was  the  one 
fort  between  the  Missouri  River 
and  the  mountains  in  the  early 
years.  It  was  the  placs  where 
other  roads  united  with  the  Oregon 
Trail.  The  wide  Platte  valley 


JC3B 


OLD  FORT  KEARNEY  BLOCK 
HOUSE  AT  NEBRASKA  CITY. 
(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha 
Turner.) 


about  the  fort  was  the 
camping  ground  of 
thousands  of  wagons 
every  summer.  Some 
days  over  five  hundred 
ox  teams  passed  the 
fort.  The  overland 
stage  and  pony  express 
stations  were  here. 

When  the  Indian  war 
of  1864  broke  out  Fort 
Kearney  became  the  central  point  for  the  army.  The  First 
Nebraska  cavalry  was  placed  there.  The  wagon  trains 
going  west  were  not  allowed  to  proceed  until  there  were 

165 


OLD  EARTHWORKS  AT  FORT  KEARNEY,  1907 


166 


STORIES   OF  NEBRASKA 


fifty  wagons  or  more.     Then  they  went  on  together  through 
the  wild  country  beyond. 

Just  west  of  the  fort  there  grew  up  a  village  called  Doby- 
town.    It  was  a  wild,  rough  place  where  all  kinds  of  bad 

characters  lived.  When 
General  Sherman  rode 
through  Dobytown  dur- 
ing the  Sioux  war  he 
was  hissed  by  some  of 
these  people  who  fa- 
vored the  South.  The 
old  general  remembered 
the  insult  and  soon  after 
order  came  from 


FALLEN  COTTONWOOD  TREE  ON  SITE  OF 
HEADQUARTERS  IST.  NEBRASKA  REGI- 
MENT AT  FT.  KEARNEY,  1864,  AS  SEEN 
IN  1907.  (From  photograph  by  A.  E. 
Sheldon.) 


an 

Washington  to  abandon 
the  fort.  On  May  17, 
1871,  the  last  soldiers 
departed  and  with 
them  went  the  last  support  of  Dobytown. 

Fort  Kearney  is  fallen  into  ruins.  Mounds  of  earth  now 
mark  the  place  where  its  buildings  stood.  Low  ridges  and 
trenches  almost  filled  are  all  that  now  remain  of  its  outer 
works.  The  deep  furrows  of  the  old  trails  are  blotted  out 
by  the  plow  and  harrow.  About  the  old  parade  ground  giant 
cottonwood  trees  planted  in  1848  stand  like  soldiers  on  guard. 
At  one  corner  of  the  parade  ground  a  fallen  cottonwood 
marks  the  site  of  the  First  Nebraska  headquarters.  Five 
miles  away  the  city  of  Kearney,  full  of  life  and  bustle,  looks 
across  the  Platte  River  at  its  namesake  the  deserted  fort. 
So  long  as  the  story  of  early  Nebraska  and  the  memory  of 
the  Oregon  Trail  endure,  the  name  of  Fort  Kearney  will  be 
remembered. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Locate  the  first  and  the  second  Fort  Kearney  on  the  map. 

2.  Why  was  the  village  near  Fort  Kearney  called  Dobytown? 

3.  Why  is  Fort  Kearney  on  the  south  side  of  the  Platte  and  the  present 

city  of  Kearney  on  the  north  side? 

4.  What  should  be  done  with  the  site  of  Fort  Kearney? 


FORT  LARAMIE 


FORT  LARAMIE,  Nebraska  Territory,  was  the  most 
noted  name  on  the  map  of  the  West  from  1854  to  1863. 
Although  now  the  old  fort  is  in  Wyoming  forty  miles  be- 
yond the  Nebraska  state 
line,  the  memories  of  its 
early  days  belong  to 
Nebraska  history. 

The  early  fur  traders 
founded  Fort  Laramie. 
One  of  them,  indeed, 
died  to  give  his  name 
to  the  Laramie  River 


FORT  LARAMIE  IN  1848 


from  which  the  fort  was  ' 
named.  As  far  back  as 
1834  the  first  fur  trader's  post,  called  Fort  William,  was 
built  in  the  forks  of  the  Laramie  and  North  Platte  rivers. 
By  the  year  1846  the  name  Fort  Laramie  was  in  common 
use.  It  was  a  new  fort  with  walls  twenty  feet  high  built  of 
sunbaked  clay  bricks.  It  stood  on  a  little  hill  near  the 
Laramie  River  about  a  mile  above  where  that  river  joined 
the  Platte.  Here  the  hunters  and  trappers  for  the  American 
Fur  Company  brought  their  furs  and  here  Indians  came  to 
trade.  About  1849  the  United  States  bought  the  fort  from 
the  fur  company  and  it  soon  became  the  chief  post  in  the 
Indian  country.  All  the  travelers  on  the  Oregon  Trail 
longed  for  sight  of  Fort  Laramie.  It  was  667  miles  from  the 
Missouri  River.  Here  the  plains  and  the  mountains  met. 
Here  the  wagon  trains  rested  and  refitted  before  starting 
on  their  journey  through  the  mountains.  Near  here  the 
great  councils  were  held  with  the  Indians,  and  the  historic 
treaties  of  1851  and  1868  were  made.  Great  buildings  were 

167 


168  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

built  here  by  the  government  to  shelter  soldiers  and  supplies. 
From  this  fort  the  regiments  marched  to  the  Indian  wars 
and  here  were  brought  many  of  the  dead  from  those  cam- 
paigns. It  was  the  great  station  on  the  world's  great 
highway. 

In  1891  Fort  Laramie  was  abandoned.  To-day  its  ruins 
cover  forty  acres  of  land.  A  few  of  the  old  buildings  are 
used  by  five  or  six  families  who  still  live  at  the  old  place. 
The  old  guard  house  or  military  jail  where  prisoners  were 
kept  is  used  as  a  horse  stable.  Roofless  buildings  and  crum- 
bling walls  are  everywhere.  Deep  gullies  over  the  hills 
mark  the  route  of  the  Oregon  Trail.  A  tiny  white  school- 
house  stands  near  the  corner  of  the  old  parade  ground,  now 
grown  over  with  grass,  and  a  dozen  school-children  now 
laugh  and  play  where  once  the  soldiers  marched  at  command. 
The  dead  are  gone  from  the  graves  on  the  hillside  to  rest  in 
the  cemetery  at  Fort  McPherson.  The  old  life  of  the 
Oregon  Trail  and  the  Indian  wars  is  gone  never  to  return, 
but  the  name  of  Fort  Laramie  will  always  remain  in  the 
history  of  early  Nebraska. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  was  there  in  the  location  of  Fort  Laramie  which  made  it  become  the 

chief  army  post  in  the  Indian  country? 

2.  Why  did  the  travelers  on  the  Oregon  Trail  rest  and  refit  at  Fort  Laramie? 

3.  Why  are  the  soldiers  no  longer  kept  in  forts  like  Kearney  and  Lararnie? 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PONCAS 

WHEN  the  first  white  men  came  up  the  Missouri  River 
they  found  a  little  tribe  of  Indians  living  in  that 
beautiful  part  of  Nebraska  by  the  mouth  of  the  Niobrara 
which  is  now  Knox  and  Boyd  counties.  They  found  clear 
flowing  streams,  wooded  hills,  grassy  valleys  and  back  of 
them  the  buffalo  prairies.  There  were  less  than  a  thousand 


PONCA  LAND  AS  PAINTED  FOR  MAXIMILIAN,  1833.     (From  Thwaites's 
"Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur  H.  Clark  Co.,  Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

people  in  the  little  tribe.  They  were  tall  and  fine  looking 
and  from  the  first  were  friendly  to  the  white  men  and  were 
never  at  war  with  them.  Their  land  lay  between  the  Sioux 
country  on  the  west  and  the  Pawnee  and  Omaha  country  on 
the  south  and  east.  The  language  they  spoke  was  related 
to  the  Sioux  language  but  more  like  that  of  the  Omahas. 
They  were  often  at  war  with  the  Sioux,  but  generally  at  peace 
with  the  Omahas,  so  much  so  that  a  great  many  of  their 

169 


170  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

young  men  and  women  were  intermarried  with  the  Omahas. 
Although  such  a  little  tribe,  they  had  their  own  name,  Punka 
or  Ponca;  their  own  traditions;  and  they  had  lived  so  long 
in  that  part  of  Nebraska  where  the  first  white  men  found 
them  that  they  had  no  other  home,  only  stories  of  a  far-off 
time  when  their  fathers  had  come  up  the  Missouri  and 
settled  at  the  mouth  of  the  Niobrara. 

After  a  time  white  settlers  began  to  come  into  the  Ponca 
country,  to  take  land  and  kill  off  the  game.  In  1858  the 
United  States  made  a  treaty  with  the  Poncas  by  the  terms  of 
which  the  Poncas  gave  up  all  their  land  except  that  part  be- 
tween the  Niobrara  River  and  Ponca  Creek.  The  richest  of 
their  land  below  the  mouth  of  the  Niobrara  was  opened  to 
the  white  settlers.  The  part  which  the  Poncas  were  to  keep 
was  on  the  border  of  the  Sioux,  their  old  enemies '  country, 
but  the  United  States  promised  in  the  treaty  to  protect  the 
Poncas,  to  pay  them  money  every  year,  to  build  them 
houses  and  give  them  schools  for  their  children. 

Two  years  after  this  treaty  the  Sioux  made  a  raid  on  the 
Poncas  and  stole  more  than  half  of  their  horses.  The 
Ponca  hunting  ground,  where  they  used  to  kill  buffalo,  was 
covered  with  Sioux  hunting  parties  and  the  Poncas  could 
not  get  their  winter  supply  of  meat.  A  drouth  came  on  the 
land  and  their  patches  of  corn  were  a  failure.  Even  the  wild 
plums  dried  on  the  trees  and  the  Poncas  hunted  over  the 
plains  for  wild  turnips  and  ate  cornstalks  to  keep  from 
starving. 

Then  a  party  of  Poncas  went  to  visit  their  friends,  the 
Omahas.  There  were  four  men,  six  women,  three  boys  and 
two  girls.  Some  drunken  white  soldiers  killed  three  women 
and  one  girl,  burned  their  tents  and  drove  away  their  six 
ponies.  Still  the  Poncas  remained  at  peace  with  the  white 
people. 

In  1868  the  United  States  made  a  great  treaty  with  the 
Sioux  Indians  at  Fort  Laramie.  In  that  treaty  by  some 
mistake  all  of  the  Ponca  land  was  given  to  the  Sioux,  the 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PONCAS  171 

bitter  and  lifelong  enemies  of  the  Poncas.  This  was  done 
without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  the  Poncas.  It  took 
away  from  them  their  homes,  their  gardens  and  the  graves 
of  their  fathers,  which  they  had  defended  against  the  Sioux 
for  hundreds  of  years,  and  made  a  present  of  them  to  their 
deadly  foes,  the  Sioux.  Nothing  so  cruel  or  unjust  was 
ever  done  by  the  United  States  to  another  tribe  of  Indians. 
And  this  was  done  to  a  tribe  which  was  always  the  friend  of 
the  white  men.  General  Sherman,  one  of  the  commissioners 
who  made  the  treaty  at  Fort  Laramie,  said  he  did  not  know 
that  this  had  been  done  until  long  afterward.  The  Poncas 
did  not  know  that  it  had  been  done  until  the  Sioux  warriors 
raided  them  and  tauntingly  shouted,  "This  land  belongs  to 
us.  Get  off."  The  Poncas  had  no  place  to  go  and  remained 
upon  their  old  reserve  even  though  in  daily  danger  from  the 
Sioux. 

During  the  two  years,  1869  and  1870,  they  built  sixty  log 
cabins  and  put  out  crops.  Then  the  Missouri  River  rose  and 
washed  away  their  village  site.  They  had  to  tear  down 
their  cabins  and  carry  them  back  half  a  mile  to  make  a  new 
village.  The  next  year  after  this  the  tribe  put  three  hundred 
acres  into  crops.  The  grasshoppers  came  that  year  and  the 
next  and  ate  the  crops. 

The  year  1876  was  a  year  of  great  excitement  on  the 
Nebraska  border.  Gold  had  been  found  in  the  Black  Hills 
and  the  white  men  wanted  to  go  there  after  it.  The  Sioux 
were  fighting  to  keep  the  white  men  out. 

The  order  was  given  to  remove  the  Ponca  Indians  "with 
their  consent"  from  their  old  home  to  the  Indian  Territory. 
An  agent  came  to  the  Poncas  and  told  them  that  they  must 
send  their  chiefs  with  him  to  the  new  place  to  pick  out  a 
home.  Standing  Bear  and  nine  other  chiefs  went.  They 
did  not  like  the  land  and  would  not  select  a  place.  They 
said  to  him:  "The  water  is  bad.  We  cannot  live  here." 
The  agent  told  them  that  they  must  pick  out  a  place  for  the 
tribe  or  he  would  not  take  them  home.  They  refused.  He 


172 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


left  them  there  a  thousand  miles  from  their  Nebraska  home 
in  the  winter  with  no  money.  Standing  Bear  told  this 
story : 

"We  started  for  home  on  foot.  At  night  we  slept  in 
haystacks.  We  hardly  lived  until  morning,  it  was  so  cold. 
We  had  nothing  but  our  blankets.  We  took  the  ears  of 
corn  that  had  dried  in  the  fields.  We  ate  it  raw.  The  soles 
of  our  moccasins  were  out.  We  were  barefoot  in  the  snow. 
We  were  nearly  dead  when  we  reached  the  Otoe  reservation 
in  Nebraska.  It  had  been  fifty  days.  We  stayed  there  ten 
days  to  get  strong  and  the  Otoes  gave  each  of  us  a  pony. 
The  agent  for  the  Otoes  said  he  had  a  telegram  that  the 
chiefs  had  run  away,  not  to  give  us  food  or  shelter  or  any 
help." 

The  Otoe  agent  afterward  said  when  the  Ponca  chiefs 
came  into  his  office  that  they  left  the  prints  of  their  feet  in 
blood  upon  the  floor. 

When  the  chiefs  reached  their  own  homes  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Niobrara  they  found  there  the  agent  who 
had  left  them  in  the  Indian  Territory.  He  had  sol- 
diers with  him  and  was 
making  the  Ponca  peo- 
ple pack  up  their  goods 
in  order  to  start  for  the 
new  country.  The  sol- 
diers put  the  women  and 
children  into  wagons 
with  what  few  things 
they  could  carry  and 
started  the  teams  for 
Indian  Territory.  This 
was  on  May  21,  1877. 
The  Poncas  were  sad  and 
Some 


STANDING   BEAR   AND   FAMILY   IN    1904. 
(From  photograph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


It  was  very  rainy  that  spring. 

heart-broken  at  leaving  their  old  Nebraska  homes, 
of  them  were  sick.     Prairie  Flower,  a  daughter  of  Standing 
Bear  and  wife  of  Shines  White,  died  of  consumption  at  Mil- 


THE  STORY   OF  THE  PONG  AS  173 

ford,  Nebraska,  and  was  buried  there.  The  womeji  of  the 
village  dressed  the  body  for  the  grave  and  brought  flowers. 
The  Indians  were  deeply  affected  by  this  kindness.  Many 
children  died  as  the  tribe  moved  south  across  Nebraska  and 
Kansas.  A  tornado  upset  their  wagons.  Part  of  the  time 
they  were  out  of  food.  One  Indian  became  insane  and 
tried  to  kill  White  Eagle,  a  chief,  for  letting  so  much  trouble 
come  upon  his  people. 

At  the  end  of  a  three  months'  journey  the  tribe  reached 
the  Indian  Territory.  They  had  left  dry  log  cabin  homes, 
their  own  plowed  fields  and  beautiful  clear  flowing  streams 
and  springs.  In  the  new  land  they  were  set  down  on  un- 
broken prairies  with  nothing  but  their  wagons  and  tents. 
The  water  was  very  bad.  All  their  cattle  and  many  of  their 
horses  died.  The  people  were  homesick  and  their  hearts 
were  breaking.  They  talked  all  the  time  of  their  beautiful 
home  in  Nebraska.  The  first  winter  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  out  of  seven  hundred  and  sixty-eight  died. 

Standing  Bear 's  son  was  among  those  who  died.  Before 
his  death  he  begged  his  father  to  take  his  body  to  Nebraska 
and  bury  it  there.  In  midwinter  Standing  Bear  and  thirty 
of  his  band  broke  away  from  the  Indian  Territory  and  set 
out  for  Nebraska  carrying  the  body  of  the  dead  young  man. 
They  had  a  long,  hard  journey  of  three  months  and  reached 
the  reservation  of  their  friends,  the  Omahas,  in  the  early 
spring.  The  Omahas  gave  them  some  land  to  put  into 
crops.  While  they  were  plowing  it  the  United  States 
soldiers  came  and  put  them  under  arrest.  They  had  orders 
to  carry  them  back  to  the  Indian  Territory. 

The  story  of  their  arrest  Was  printed  in  the  newspapers 
and  friends  in  Omaha  came  to  their  aid.  Dr.  George  L. 
Miller,  editor  of  the  Herald  took  up  their  cause.  Two  lead- 
ing lawyers, —  John  L.  Webster  and  Andrew  J.  Poppleton,— 
defended  them  without  pay.  There  was  a  trial  in  the 
United  States  court  at  Omaha.  Standing  Bear  made  a 
speech  to  the  court  through  an  interpreter,  which  touched 


174  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

all  hearts.  Judge  Dundy  decided  that  Standing  Bear  and 
his  band  should  be  set  free.  There  was  great  rejoicing  in  the 
hearts  of  the  Indians  and  their  friends. 

After  they  were  set  free  by  Judge  Dundy,  Standing  Bear 
and  his  party  settled  on  an  island  in  the  Niobrara  River  which 
was  part  of  their  old  reservation  and  had  been  overlooked 
when  the  United  States  gave  their  old  country  to  the  Sioux. 
Here  they  were  joined  by  others  from  the  Indian  Territory 
until  they  numbered  a  hundred  and  thirty.  White  friends 
furnished  them  tools  and  they  began  to  farm  again.  Stand- 
ing Bear  was  called  to  go  east  and  tell  the  Indians '  story  to 
great  audiences.  In  1890  peace  was  made  between  the  Sioux 
and  the  Ponca  tribes  and  the  Sioux  gave  back  to  the  Poncas 
part  of  their  old  lands  on  the  Niobrara.  About  one  third 
the  tribe  came  back,  the  remainder  staying  in  the  Indian 
Territory.  Standing  Bear  lived  to  an  old  age  and  died  at 
his  home  on  the  Niobrara  on  September  3,  1908. 

QUESTIONS 

1 .  What  right  had  the  United  States  to  give  the  Ponca  land  to  the  Sioux? 

2.  Would  you  be  willing  to  have  the  Poncas  taken  from  their  old  homes  in 

this  way  in  order  to  get  a  home  for  yourself? 

3.  Which  would  be  better  —  to  submit  like  the  Poncas  or  to  fight  like  the 

Sioux? 

4.  Tell  what  you  think  of  Standing  Bear  from  this  story. 

5.  Ought  an  Indian  to  have  the  same  rights  in  this  country  as  a  white  man? 

Why? 

6.  What  should  the  people  of  Nebraska  do  for  the  Indian  tribes  whose  old 

homes  were  in  our  state? 


BRIGHT  EYES 


(Instha  Theamba) 

BRIGHT  EYES  was  an  Omaha  Indian  girl,  who  became 
widely  known  through  her  efforts  to  help  her  people. 
She  was  born  at  Bellevue  in  1854,  the  daughter  of  Joseph 
and  Mary  LaFlesche,  and  united  in  her  person  the  blood  of 
the  Indian,  the  French  and  the  American  settlers  of  Ne- 
braska. Her  father  was  a  chief  of 
the  Omaha  tribe,  the  son  of  a  French- 
man and  a  Ponca  Indian  woman. 
Her  mother  was  daughter  of  Nicomi, 
an  Indian  woman  of  the  loway 
tribe,  and  Dr.  John  Gale,  a  surgeon 
of  the  United  States  army. 

When  Bright  Eyes  was  born  she 
was  named  Yosette  or  Susette  by 
her  parents.  It  was  not  until  years 
later  she  received  her  second  name. 
Her  father's  Indian  name  was 
Esta-maza  or  "Iron  Eyes."  Some 
one  who  knew  this  looked  at  the  daughter  and  said,  "Her 
name  should  be  Bright  Eyes,  or  in  Omaha  language,  Instha 
Theamba."  So  she  came  to  be  known  by  the  name  "Bright 
Eyes"  and  to  sign  it  to  her  writings. 

Bright  Eyes  grew  up  on  the  Omaha  Indian  reservation 
with  the  other  Indian  children.  She  spoke  nothing  but  the 
Omaha  language  until  she  was  eight  years  old.  Then  she 
went  to  the  mission  school  on  the  reservation.  She  learned 
English  faster  than  any  other  child  in  the  school  and  was 
soon  able  to  read  and  write.  Every  one  loved  her  because  she 
was  so  bright  and  cheerful  and  winning  in  her  ways.  When 

175 


BRIGHT    EYES.       (INSTHA 

THEAMBA)   MRS.  T.  H. 

TIBBLES 


176 

she  was  fifteen  she  was  asked  what  she  most  wished  for  a 
Christmas  present  and  replied,  a  good  education.  This  was 
told  to  the  president  of  a  woman's  seminary  at  Elizabeth, 
New  Jersey.  Very  soon  Bright  Eyes  was  invited  to  attend 
school  there,  and  became  at  once  one  of  the  best  students, 
beloved  by  her  teachers  and  by  the  young  white  women  who 
were  her  schoolmates.  At  the  end  of  four  years  she  graduat- 
ed and  came  back  to  the  Omaha  reservation. 

The  Omaha  Indians  were  very  poor.  Grasshoppers  came 
and  ate  their  crops.  Part  of  the  tribe  lived  in  the  old  Indian 
way  and  kept  up  the  old  Indian  customs.  There  were  no 
pleasant  rooms  and  beautiful  books  and  pictures  and  educat- 
ed girl  companions  as  there  were  at  the  school  at  Elizabeth, 
New  Jersey.  The  wild  game  was  fast  going.  The  Indians 
had  not  yet  learned  how  to  farm  as  the  white  men  did. 
Idleness  and  its  bad  results  were  seen  in  the  tribe.  There 
was  little  to  make  life  happy  for  a  bright  girl  fresh  from 
study  in  an  eastern  school. 

One  day  Bright  Eyes  found  out  that  there  was  a  law 
which  said  that  any  Indian  qualified  to  teach  school  should 
have  the  preference  in  schools  on  the  reservation.  She  at 
once  set  out  to  get  leave  to  teach  school  near  her  home. 
After  great  obstacles  had  been  overcome,  she  began  teaching 
in  a  little  cabin  at  twenty  dollars  a  month.  This  gave  her 
a  chance  to  help  the  people  of  her  tribe  in  many  ways  toward 
a  better  way  of  living.  She  was  very  busy  in  this  work  when 
Standing  Bear  and  the  Ponca  Indians  who  had  escaped  from 
Oklahoma  came  to  the  Omaha  tribe  for  help  in  1879. 

Bright  Eyes  at  once  became  the  champion  of  the  poor 
Poncas.  She  wrote  to  the  newspapers  the  story  of  their 
wrongs.  She  visited  Omaha  in  their  behalf.  While  thus 
engaged  she  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  T.  H.  Tibbies,  an 
editorial  writer  on  the  Omaha  Herald,  and  later,  in  1882, 
became  his  wife.  The  next  year  she  was  asked  by  people 
interested  in  the  Indians  to  go  east  and  tell  the  story  of 
Nebraska  Indians  and  their  needs.  For  the  next  five  years, 


BRIGHT  EYES  177 

accompanied  by  her  husband  and  Chief  Standing  Bear,  she 
spoke  to  great  audiences  in  the  eastern  states  and  in  Europe. 
Everywhere  the  people  were  charmed  with  her  presence  and 
interested  in  her  story.  The  poet  Longfellow  asked  to  meet 
her  and  when  he  saw  her  said,  "This  is  Minnehaha."  Lead- 
ing men  took  up  the  cause  of  the  Indian  and  their  rights  were 
better  protected. 

At  the  end  of  her  years  of  lecturing  Bright  Eyes  returned 
to  Nebraska.  Her  summers  usually  were  spent  on  the 
Omaha  reservation  among  her  own  people.  During  the 
remainder  of  the  year  she  lived  in  Omaha  or  Lincoln,  where 
Mr.  Tibbies  was  engaged  in  editorial  work.  She  wrote  much 
herself  and  had  the  most  constant  interest  in  the  progress  of 
the  Omahas  and  other  tribes  of  Indians.  During  the  last 
Sioux  war  in  1890  she  was  at  Pine  Ridge.  She  died  May  26, 
1903,  at  her  own  home  on  the  Omaha  reservation  in  sight  of 
the  beautiful  Logan  River  and  the  hills  where  her  people  had 
hunted  in  the  early  days,  leaving  the  memory  of  a  good  and 
true  life  spent  in  making  all  life  which  she  touched  brighter 
and  better. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  inspiration  is  there  in  this  story  for  any  Nebraska  girl? 

2.  What  do  you  admire  most  in  Bright  Eyes'  character?     Why? 

3.  Did  she  belong  more  to  the  Indian  or  to  the  white  race? 


THE  HERD  LAW 

WHEN  the  first  settlers  came  to  Nebraska  they  settled 
along  the  streams  where  there  was  timber  and  water. 
They  farmed  very  small  fields  and  fenced  them,  turning 
their  horses,  cattle  and  other  stock  loose  to  go  where  they 
pleased  and  find  food,  water  and  shelter.  It  was  a  very  easy 
way  to  raise  stock  and  the  longer  one  raised  it  in  that  way  the 
more  he  thought  it  was  the  only  way. 

All  about  the  early  settlers '  cabins  were  miles  upon  miles 
of  grass-land  free  for  everybody.  Cattle,  sheep  and  horses 
would  find  the  best  places  to  feed  and  stay  there  as  long  as 
they  liked.  When  they  were  thirsty  they  would  go  to  the 
running  water  to  drink.  Often  they  would  lie  down  in  the 
shade  of  trees  and  rest  during  the  heat  of  the  day.  All  the 
owner  had  to  do  was  to  ride  around  them  once  in  a  while  to 
see  that  all  were  there.  Hogs  also  ran  loose  and  lived  chiefly 
on  acorns.  Where  there  were  no  acorns  they  ate  rushes 
which  grew  thickly  in  the  valleys  and  their  ready  noses  found 
roots  to  dig  everywhere. 

A  good  many  of  the  early  settlers  liked  to  hunt.  There 
was  plenty  of  game.  After  a  settler  had  his  crop  in  he  could 
go  hunting  and  after  he  had  it  gathered  he  could  go  hunting 
again.  His  stock  would  take  care  of  itself  while  he  was  gone. 

After  a  while  all  the  land  with  wood  and  water  in  each 
neighborhood  was  taken.  Settlers  kept  on  coming.  Some 
of  them  went  on  farther  west  to  get  land  with  wood  and  wa- 
ter. Some  of  them  took  the  rich  grass  land  which  the  first 
settlers  had  passed  by.  They  had  no  timber  to  fence  with 
and  they  did  not  wish  to  fence.  They  broke  out  larger 
fields  and  began  to  farm  on  a  larger  scale.  When  the  stock 
running  loose  got  into  their  crops  there  was  trouble.  The 
settlers  on  the  prairie  said  that  every  man  should  take  care 

178 


THE  HERD  LAW 


179 


of  his  own  stock  and  keep  them  out  of  the  crops.  The  set- 
tlers along  the  streams  said  that  every  man  should  fence  his 
crop  and  all  should  let  their  stock  run.  So  they  disputed  and 
sometimes  fought. 

More  settlers  came  in  and  the  settlements  spread  rapidly 
west  from  the  Missouri  River  and  away  from  the  timber  along 


HERD  LAW  ACT  OF  1870.     (Photo  from  original  in  Statehouse.) 

the  streams.  There  were  some  settlements  where  everyone 
wanted  the  stock  kept  up  and  some  where  all  wanted  the 
crops  fenced.  Laws  began  to  be  passed  that  sheep  and  hogs 
should  not  run  at  large.  A  little  later  laws  were  passed  that 
horses  and  cattle  should  not  run  at  large  in  the  night.  Then 
laws  were  passed  making  owners  of  stock  liable  for  damages 
done  by  it  in  certain  counties  only.  The  people  divided  into 
two  parties,  those  who  wished  to  raise  crops  and  those  who 


180  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

wished  to  raise  stock.  The  dispute  grew  warm  in  all  the 
settlements. 

Finally  in  the  year  1870  so  many  thousand  settlers  were 
coming  that  the  legislature  met  in  special  session  at  the  call 
of  Governor  Butler  and  passed  the  first  general  herd  law. 
Under  it  everyone  had  to  keep  his  stock  from  the  crops  of 
other  people  or  pay  damages  and  anyone  finding  stock  in  his 
crop  might  take  it  up  and  hold  it  until  the  damages  were 
paid.  This  was  called  the  "  herd  law,"  because  the  best  way 
found  to  keep  stock  from  the  crops  was  to  herd  it.  Some 
parts  of  the  state  were  excepted  from  this  law.  The  next 
year  the  law  was  changed  so  that  all  the  state  came  under  the 
herd  law  unless  the  people  of  a  county  voted  to  have  a  fence 
law  in  that  county. 

This  has  been  the  law  of  Nebraska  since  1871.  It  has 
made  it  possible  for  poor  people  who  could  not  fence  to  raise 
crops  and  make  homes  on  the  prairie.  With  this  law  the 
settler  could  plant  a  crop  anywhere  and  harvest  all  he  could 
raise.  Without  it  he  could  harvest  only  what  he  could  pro- 
tect from  roaming  stock.  No  law  has  helped  more  than  this 
one  in  the  settlement  of  our  state  and  although  the  need  of 
it  is  no  longer  felt,  the  good  that  it  has  done  abides  with  us, 
giving  each  man  the  right  to  reap  where  he  sows. 

QUESTIONS 

1 .  What  differences  between  farming  in  the  early  days  and  now? 

2.  Who  has  better  right  to  use  of  the  land,  the  stockman  or  the  farmer? 

Why? 

3.  How  has  the  herd  law  helped  Nebraska? 

4.  Do  we  need  it  now?    Why? 


TWO  CROWS 


(Cahae  Numba) 

TWO  CROWS  was  for  many  years  a  leading  chief  of  the 
Omaha  tribe.  He  was  tall,  strong  and  very  active  even 
when  he  became  an  old  man.  He  was  born  about  the  year 
1820,  and  died  at  his  home  among  the  Blackbird  Hills  about 
the  year  1895.  He  was  a  firm  friend  of  the  white  people 
during  all  his  long  life.  He  fought 
in  many  battles  with  the  Sioux  and 
the  Pawnees  and  good  fortune 
kept  him  safe  through  many  great 
dangers. 

Two  Crows  was  famed  in  the 
tribe  for  his  wit  and  shrewdness  of 
speech.  This  became  more  and 
more  marked  as  years  went  on  and 
in  the  councils  all  the  Indians  lis- 
tened eagerly  to  hear  what  Two 
Crows  would  say,  for  they  knew 
that  he  would  give  some  sharp,  keen  point  to  the  talk.  After 
the  Omahas  had  settled  on  their  land  where  they  now  live, 
many  white  men  who  had  married  Indian  wives  came 
and  settled  there  too.  Other  persons  who  had  both  white 
and  Indian  blood  also  had  settled  there,  because  the  land 
was  very  black  and  rich,  and  there  were  many  beautiful 
springs  and  clear  streams  of  water  flowing  through  it,  and 
plenty  of  timber  for  fuel  and  for  building  purposes.  The  old- 
fashioned  Indians  became  very  jealous  of  these  "white  Indi- 
ans" and  at  last  called  a  great  council  of  the  tribe  to  talk  it 
over.  One  chief  after  another  rose  and  told  the  council  how 
much  trouble  the  white  people  made  them.  They  said  the 

181 


Two  CROWS  (CAHAE  NUMBA) 


182 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


Great  Father  gave  the  land  to  the  Indians  and  the  white 
people  had  no  right  to  be  there.  They  all  said  what  a  shame 
it  was  for  the  Omahas  to  marry  with  any  other  people,  and 

that  none  but  the  pure  blood  Oma- 
ha Indians  had  any  right  to  the 
land.  After  they  had  all  talked 
until  they  were  tired  and  the  In- 
dians had  agreed  to  all  they  said, 
Two  Crows,  who  was  then  a  very 
old  man,  rose  slowly  and  said: 

"My  friends,  I  agree  with  all 
that  you  say  to-day.  You  have 
said  it  very  wisely  and  very  well. 
None  but  the  pure  blood  Omahas 
have  any  right  to  this  land.  All  the 
others  ought  to  move  off  at  once.  Now,  you  all  know  that  my 
family  and  Wajepa's  family  are  the  only  two  families  of  pure 
Omaha  blood  in  the  tribe.  All  the  rest  of  you  have  got  a 
little  Ponca  blood,  or  a  little  Sioux  blood,  or  a  little  loway 
blood  mixed  in.  So  now  all  of  you  move  off  the  land  and 
Wajepa  and  I  will  keep  it  for  the  pure  Omahas." 

This  unexpected  turn  broke  up  the  council.  What  Two 
Crows  said  was  true.  In  the  Omaha  tribe,  a  very  small 
tribe,  it  had  been  the  custom  for  many  years  for  some  of  the 
young  men  to  take  their  wives  from  the  neighboring  tribes. 
The  result  was  that  in  time  all  the  families  but  two  had  in- 
termarried. This  was  very  well  known  to  all  the  Indians 
and  as  no  one  could  deny  what  Two  Crows  said  the  dis- 
contented Indians  were  very  glad  to  drop  the  matter. 


WAJEPA.     (From  photograph 
collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.} 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Was  the  idea  that  none  but  pure  blood  Omahas  should  have  the  land  a 

good  one? 

2.  Why  did  the  other  Omaha  Indians  who  spoke  for  this  idea  refuse  to  accept 

it  after  Two  Crows  favored  it? 

3.  Who  are  Americans  in  this  country? 


THE  GRASSHOPPERS 

RASSHOPPERS  were  among  the  worst  enemies  of  the 
early  settlers  of  Nebraska.  They  were  not  the  common 
green  or  yellow  kind  which  you  see  jumping  in  the  fields  to- 
day, nor  yet  the  red,  yellow  and  black  winged  "dusty  road- 
ers"  which  boys  chase  down  the  lane.  These  were  the 
Rocky  Mountain  grasshoppers,  with  slender  bodies,  light 
gray  wings  and  enormous  appetites.  Their  home  was  on 
the  high  plains  and  among  the  hills  at  the  foot  of  the  great 
mountains  of  the  West.  Here  they  lived  and  raised  their 
families.  In  dry  years  there  were  more  children  and  less 
food  at  home.  Then  they  assembled  and  flew  away  in  great 
swarms  to  the  east  and  south.  They  traveled  hundreds  of 
miles.  Sometimes  in  clear,  warm  moonlight  they  flew  all 
night.  More  often  they  settled  down  late  in  the  afternoon 
to  rest  and  feed,  and  pursued  their  journey  on  the  morrow. 

It  was  a  sad  day  for  the  settlers  where  the  grasshoppers 
lighted.  Eight  times  between  1857  and  1875  some  parts  of 
our  state  were  visited  by  them,  but  the  great  grasshopper 
raid  came  on  July  20th,  21st  and-22d,  1874.  Suddenly, 
along  the  entire  frontier  of  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Dakota  and 
Minnesota,  the  air  was  filled  with  grasshoppers.  There 
were  billions  of  them  in  the  great  clouds  which  darkened  the 
sun.  The  vibration  of  their  wings  filled  the  ear  with  a  roar- 
ing sound  like  a  rushing  storm,  followed  by  a  deep  hush  as 
they  dropped  to  the  earth  and  began  to  devour  the  crops. 

All  the  corn  was  eaten  in  a  single  day.  Where  green  fields 
stood  at  sunrise  nothing  remained  at  night  but  stumps  of 
stalks  swarming  with  hungry  hoppers  struggling  for  the  last 
bite.  They  stripped  the  garden  patches  bare.  They  gnawed 
great  holes  in  carpets  and  rugs  put  out  to  save  favorite 
plants.  The  buds  and  bark  of  fruit  trees  were  consumed. 

183 


184 


STORIES   OF  NEBRASKA 


They  followed  potatoes  and  onions  into  the  earth.  When 
they  had  finished  the  gardens  and  green  crops  they  attacked 
the  wheat  and  oats  in  the  shock  and  the  wild  grass  in  the 
unplowed  .  fields.  Only  two  green  crops  escaped  them, 
broomcorn  and  sorghum  cane.  They  did  not  seem  to  have 
a  sweet  eyetooth.  Everywhere  the  earth  was  covered  with 


IN  GRASSHOPPER  DAYS.     (From  photograph  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 

a  gray  mass  of  struggling,  biting  grasshoppers.  Turkeys  and 
chickens  feasted  on  them.  Dogs  and  pigs  learned  to  eat 
them.  It  was  hard  to  drive  a  team  across  a  field  because 
the  swarm  of  grasshoppers  flew  up  in  front  and  struck  the 
horses  in  the  face  with  such  force. 

We  thought  when  they  were  filled  they  would  fly  away. 
Not  at  all.  They  liked  us  so  well  they  concluded  to  leave 
their  children  with  us.  The.  mother  grasshoppers  began  to 
pierce  the  earth  with  holes  and  fill  the  holes  with  eggs.  Each 


THE  GRASSHOPPERS  185 

one  laid  about  one  hundred  eggs.     Then  they  died  and  the 
ground  was  covered  with  their  dead  bodies. 

Most  of  the  people  on  the  frontier  were  very  poor.  It 
was  "hard  times"  even  before  the  grasshoppers  came. 
There  was  a  great  panic  in  the  land.  Many  settlers  had 
nothing  to  live  on  during  the  winter  but  their  sod  corn  and 
garden.  These  were  gone.  It  looked  like  starvation.  The 
future  held  no  hope,  for  the  very  soil  was  filled  with  eggs 
which  would  hatch  a  hundred  times  as  many  grasshoppers 
the  next  spring.  Those  were  the  darkest  days  for  the  Ne- 
braska pioneers.  Some  sold  or  gave  away  their  claims  and 
went  east.  Their  covered  wagons  used  to  pass  with  this 
painted  on  the  canvas: 

"EATEN  OUT  BY  GRASSHOPPERS. 
GOING  BACK  EAST  TO  LIVE  WITH  WIFE'S  FOLKS." 

During  the  fall  and  winter  those  men  brave  enough  to 
stay  took  their  teams  and  worked  wherever  they  could  get 
a  job  in  the  older  settlements.  Some  hunted  game  and  lived 
as  the  Indians  did  on  dried  buffalo  meat,  trading  the  robes 
for  other  supplies.  Relief  funds  were  raised  farther  east  and 
food,  seed  and  clothing  distributed  to  those  not  too  proud  to 
apply  for  them.  Thus  the  dark  winter  of  1874-75  was  lived 
through. 

In  the  spring  the  settlers  sowed  their  small  grain  and 
millions  of  young  grasshoppers  hatched  to  eat  it.  These 
little  fellows  could  not  fly.  They  could  only  hop  short  hops. 
So  the  settlers  made  ditches  and  drove  them  in.  Windrows 
of  straw  were  laid  across  the  fields.  The  young  grasshoppers 
crawled  into  the  straw  to  get  warm  and  the  settlers  set  it  on 
fire.  Bushels  of  them  were  caught  in  wide  shallow  pans  with 
kerosene  in  the  bottom  which  were  set  low  and  drawn  across 
the  fields.  Nature  helped  the  settlers.  It  was  a  cold  rainy 
spring  which  froze  the  young  brood.  Little  parasites  bored 
holes  in  the  eggs  and  in  the  little  fellows.  The  birds,  then 


186  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

as  now  the  farmer 's  best  friends,  came  from  the  south  and 
joined  in  the  good  work  of  fighting  grasshoppers. 

For  the  next  two  or  three  years  there  were  some  grass- 
hoppers and  the  fear  of  more  along  the  frontier.  Then  the 
Rocky  Mountain  grasshoppers  disappeared  from  the  settle- 
ments. They  have  never  been  seen  in  such  vast  numbers 
since  and  the  hard  times  they  brought  on  the  land  will  prob- 
ably never  again  return.  Those  who  left  their  claims  have 
wished  many  times  that  they  had  stayed  by  their  farms,  which 
seemed  so  worthless  in  those  early  years.  Those  who  held 
on  to  their  land  through  hardship  and  suffering,  with  hearts 
strong  and  faith  firm  in  the  future  of  Nebraska,  have  lived 
to  see  their  later  years  made  glad  by  generous  crops  and  hap- 
py homes  where  children  asking  for  stories  of  the  long  ago 
are  told  the  story  of  the  dark  days  when  the  grasshoppers 
came. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  In  what  respects  are  the  migrations  of  grasshoppers  like  those  of  men? 

2.  Is  there  room  enough  in  the  world  for  all  the  insects  and  all  the  people? 

Why? 

3.  Who  in  your  neighborhood  can  tell  true  stories  of  the  grasshopper  days? 

What  have  you  heard  of  them? 

4.  Why  do  we  believe  the  grasshoppers  will  never  again  come  in  such  vast 

numbers? 


LOST  IN  THE  SAND  HILLS 


,  great  Sand  Hills  section  of  western  Nebraska  is  in 

A  the  shape  of  an  open  fan.  The  handle  of  the  fan  is  in 
Hayes  and  Dundy  counties  near  the  southwest  corner  of  the 
state,  the  broad  wings 
of  the  fan  extend  into 
parts  of  Cherry,  Sher- 
idan, Holt,  Rock, 
Antelope  and  Pierce 
counties,  reaching  the 
northern  border  of  the 
state.  The  center  of 
this  sand  hills  fan  is  in 
southern  Cherry  and 

Thomas  counties.    Here       THE  SAND  HILLS.    (From  photograph  by 

extend  for  many  miles 

in  every  direction  great  billows  of  sandy  soil.  Until  closely 
studied  all  of  the  landscapes  look  alike,  for  each  sand  hill 
seems  like  each  other  sand  hill,  and  the  little  vales  which 
lie  between  are  all  sisters  of  the  same  age.  The  sand  drifts 
and  slides  about  with  each  gust  of  wind.  There  are  no 
great  landmarks  to  serve  as  guides.  If  one  climbs  to  the 
top  of  the  highest  hill  in  sight,  everywhere  is  a  confused 
medley  of  hills  and  hollows  extending  as  far  as  eye  can  see. 
It  is  as  though  in  an  ocean  tossed  by  a  great  storm  the 
waves  suddenly  had  been  changed  to  sand. 

In  the  early  years  of  exploration  and  settlement  the  sand 
hills  were  regarded  as  a  dangerous  region.  Many  stories 
are  told  of  hunters  and  explorers  who  were  lost  among  these 
hills.  In  more  than  one  place  human  skeletons  have  been 
found,  telling  their  mute  story  of  a  losing  struggle  with  hun- 
ger and  thirst  in  these  treacherous  wilds. 

187 


188  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

One  of  the  most  thrilling  incidents  of  frontier  days  oc- 
curred in  the  sand  hills  of  Thomas  County  in  1891.  In 
March  of  that  year  a  German  family  named  Haumann  set- 
tled near  Thedford.  There  were  nine  or  ten  children  in  the 
family.  The  eldest  girl,  Hannah,  went  to  work  for  Mr.  Gil- 
son,  a  neighbor  who  lived  about  a  mile  and  a  half  away.  It 
was  her  custom  to  come  home  on  Sunday  and  spend  a  happy 
day  with  her  brothers  and  sisters.  On  Sunday,  May  10th, 
she  did  not  come  home  as  usual,  because  Mr.  Gilson  was 
away  and  Mrs.  Gilson  wished  Hannah  to  stay  with  her  for 
company.  This  made  the  other  children  unhappy,  and 
Tillie  and  Retta  coaxed  their  mother  to  let  them  go  over  to 
the  Gilson  home  to  visit  their  sister.  Tillie  was  eight  years 
old  and  Retta  was  four.  After  dinner  Mrs.  Haumann  let 
them  go,  telling  them  to  stay  an  hour  and  then  come 
straight  home.  They  reached  Mr.  Gilson 's  safely  and  about 
four  o'clock  started,  hand  in  hand,  to  return  home.  At  this 
season  the  sand  hills  are  beautiful  with  grasses  and  wild 
flowers,  and  the  two  children  left  their  path  and  ran  eagerly 
to  gather  those  near  by.  They  saw  others  still  more  beauti- 
ful a  little  farther  off,  so  they  laughed  and  ran  on  and  on  to 
gather  them  until  the  path  was  lost  and  the  great  sea  of  sand 
hills  stretched  before  them  wave  upon  wave.  Lost  upon  this 
sea,  they  wandered  on. 

Night  came  and  brought  no  children  to  the  Haumann 
home.  At  daybreak  the  next  morning  the  neighbors  were 
searching  the  hills.  Word  had  been  sent  to  Thedford  and 
from  there  to  the  surrounding  country.  Although  it  was  the 
busy  season  of  the  year,  men  left  their  fields  and  herds  and 
tramped  or  rode  over  the  hills  and  hollows  looking  every- 
where for  the  two  little  girls.  Monday  afternoon  just  be- 
fore sundown  they  found  their  trail.  That  night  Mr. 
Stacey  with  a  party  of  searchers  camped  on  the  trail.  As 
soon  as  it  was  light  they  followed  the  children's  tracks, 
sometimes  rapidly,  often  more  slowly  and  not  infrequently 
upon  their  hands  and  knees.  The  story  of  the  children's 


LOST  IN  THE  SAND  HILLS  189 

wanderings  and  weariness  was  written  in  the  prints  made  on 
the  sand  and  grass  along  the  way.  Here  Tillie  had  carried 
Retta  —  here  they  had  walked  side  by  side  —  here  they  had 
sat  down  to  rest  —  here  they  were  up  again  and  pushing 
bravely  on  to  find  their  home. 

Tuesday  night  the  searchers  camped  again  by  the  side  of 
the  trail.  They  did  not  know  until  too  late  that  they  and 
the  children  were  only  a  little  distance  apart  that  night. 

Wednesday  morning  they  found  where  Tillie  and  Retta 
had  passed  the  night  lying  close  by  each  other  on  the  sand. 
Here  the  trail  grew  hard  to  follow  and  much  time  was  lost. 
Meanwhile  the  women  at  Thedford  were  helping  in  their 
homes,  preparing  food  and  coffee  which  they  sent  to  the  men 
on  the  trail.  The  searchers  found  the  work  anxious  and 
nerve-racking.  At  times  the  little  footprints  were  plain  and 
clear  and  they  hastened  to  overtake  the  children.  A  little 
farther  on  the  light  sand  had  sifted  across  and  left  no  trace 
to  follow.  The  poor  mother  could  not  join  in  the  search,  for 
she  had  two  children  younger  than  Retta,  one  a  baby,  so  she 
waited  at  home  from  hour  to  hour  for  news  of  her  lost 
children. 

While  the  searchers  followed,  the  two  children  wandered 
on,  traveling  when  awake  almost  constantly.  If  they  had 
only  waited  they  would  soon  have  been  found,  but  their 
minds  were  filled  with  the  thought  of  home  while  their  feet 
carried  them  ever  farther  away  with  each  weary  step.  On 
Wednesday  morning  Tillie  told  Retta  to  wait  at  the  foot  of 
a  big  hilt  while  she  went  to  the  top  to  see  if  there  was  a  house 
in  sight.  When  she  reached  the  top  she  seems  to  have  seen 
a  larger  hill,  a  common  impression  as  one  looks  out  over  that 
country,  and  went  on  to  get  the  wider  view  from  that. 
Retta  thought  that  she  would  meet  her  sister  more  quickly 
by  going  around  the  hill,  and  so  started  on.  Thus  they  were 
separated,  never  to  meet  again.  About  noon  of  this  day  the 
searching  party,  which  included  Mr.  Haumann,  Mr.  Stacey, 
Mr.  Maseburg  and  Dr.  Edmunds,  found  Retta  carrying  one 


190  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

little  shoe  with  its  sole  worn  through,  while  the  other  had  been 
dropped  on  the  trail.  Both  of  the  girls  had  worn  new  shoes 
when  they  left  home  that  Sunday.  Very  tenderly  the  little 
girl  was  cared  for  by  the  doctor  and  the  others.  She  had 
wandered  so  long  without  food  or  water  that  her  mind  was 
affected  for  many  days.  She  said  that  they  saw  a  prairie 
fire  and  went  to  it  in  hope  of  finding  some  one,  but  no  one  was 
there. 

The  search  for  Tillie  went  on.  From  Dunning,  thirty 
miles  east  of  Thedford,  a  party  of  searchers  started  on 
Wednesday,  the  day  on  which  Retta  was  found.  They 
formed  in  a  long  line  across  the  hills  to  intercept  her,  for  the 
children  had  wandered  east.  On  Sunday,  May  17th,  the 
Dunning  party  found  the  lost  girl.  She  had  taken  off  her 
apron,  spread  it  over  some  rose  bushes,  laid  herself  on  the 
sand  beneath  and  died.  Her  body  was  placed  on  a  hand  car 
and  taken  to  Thedford.  Her  parents  did  not  recognize  their 
child  except  by  her  clothing.  She  was  wasted  to  skin  and 
bones  and  her  fair  tender  flesh  was  burned  black  by  exposure. 
All  the  neighborhood  came  to  her  funeral  and  wept  with  her 
family  as  the  wornout  little  body  was  laid  to  rest. 

That  country  is  settled  now  and  fences  stretch  every- 
where across  the  hills.  One  has  only  to  follow  a  fence  and 
he  will  reach  a  ranch  or  a  road.  The  Haumann  family  still 
live  on  their  ranch  near  Thedford.  Retta  has  grown  to 
womanhood  and  has  a  little  daughter  of  her  own.  She  lives 
at  Broken  Bow  and  often  visits  the  old  home.  You  may  be 
sure  they  do  not  forget  their  lost  sister,  Tillie,  nor  do  the 
early  settlers  fail  to  recall  with  deep  feeling  the  days  when 
they  followed  a  fading  trail  while  far  ahead  of  them  toiled 
the  figure  of  a  brave  little  girl  carrying  her  younger  sister  in 
her  arms  to  ease  her  weariness  as  they  struggled  on  in  search 
of  home. 


LOST  IN   THE  SAND   HILLS  191 


QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  the  sand  hills  country  in  Nebraska  good  for? 

2.  What  to  you  is  the  saddest  part  of  this  story? 

3.  Have  you  known  of  any  child  being  lost?     Tell  about  it. 

4.  Notice  how  very  kind  all  the  neighbors  were.     What  acts  of  kindness 

have  you  known  neighbors  to  show  in  times  of  deep  trouble? 

5.  Tell  what  you  think  is  fine  about  Tillie  Haumann. 


AN  OPEN  WELL 

IT  was  a  long  distance  to  water  for  the  settlers  on  the  table 
lands  of  Nebraska.  If  they  went  straight  down  it  was 
from  one  hundred  to  three  hundred  feet  of  hard  digging.  If 
they  went  across  country  it  was  sometimes  five  or  six  miles 
to  a  running  stream.  Frequently  they  hauled  water  in 
barrels  from  the  streams  during  the  first  year,  putting  in  a 
sod  crop  to  live  on  and  (Jigging  in  the  well  every  hour  they 
could  spare.  As  they  could  not  afford  machinery  these 
early  wells  were  dug  by  hand.  A  stout  rope  and  bucket 
with  a  home  made  crank  and  windlass  brought  the  dirt  up 
from  the  bottom.  Sometimes  this  was  turned  by  the 
mother  and  children  while  the  father  pounded  away  at  the 
bottom  with  pick  and  spade.  Sometimes  the  well  went 
through  layers  of  soft  and  sandy  soil  which  would  cave  in  and 
bury  the  digger  below.  To  prevent  this  a  box  or  curbing  was 
made  with  boards  strongly  braced  inside  and  just  large 
enough  to  fit  the  well.  This  held  the  wall  of  the  soft  layers 
firmly  in  place.  Where  the  wall  was  hard  it  did  not  need 
curbing. 

Digging  a  deep  well  was  slow,  painful  and  dangerous 
work.  Months  passed  while  the  family  dug  and  turned  the 
windlass  and  wondered  how  much  deeper  the  water  lay. 
What  a  day  of  celebration  when  the  digger  struck  the  final 
blow  and  water  flowed  in  about  his  feet!  How  glad  the 
children  were!  All  the  neighbors  came  to  taste  the  water 
and  rejoice  at  the  family's  good  luck.  Water,  common 
water,  which  people  throw  carelessly  away  seemed  to  them 
as  precious  as  gold. 

When  the  well  was  very  deep,  pulling  the  water  up  by 
hand  was  too  slow  work,  so  a  large  wooden  drum  and  tackle 
was  built  alongside  the  well.  Horses  or  oxen  were  hitched 

192 


AN  OPEN  WELL  193 

to  a  pole  fastened  to  the  drum  and  driven  around  it  in  a  cir- 
cle. As  the  drum  turned  it  wound  up  a  long  stout  rope  and 
at  the  other  end  of  the  rope  was  a  barrel  of  water  coming 
slowly  to  the  top  from  the  cool  depths  of  the  deep  well. 

During  the  drought  of  1890  to  1895  many  settlers  on  the 
high  plains  of  western  Nebraska  left  the  claims  where  they 
had  worked  so  hard  and  the  wells  they  had  toiled  so  hard  to 
dig  because  they  had  no  crops.  The  grass  and  weeds  grew 
up  about  the  wells,  the  frame  and  windlass  disappeared  and 
there  was  a  hidden  open  hole  hundreds  of  feet  deep.  Such 
an  open  well  in  Custer  County  was  the  scene  of  a  thrilling 
experience.  The  story  of  it  was  told  in  the  Custer  County 
Beacon  of  September  5,  1895,  by  the  man  who  lived  through 
it,  Mr.  F.  W.  Carlin.  It  is  given  for  the  most  part  in  his  own 
words : 

"  While  driving  through  the  country  about  fifteen  miles 
northwest  of  Broken  Bow  on  the  evening  of  August  14th,  I 
found  I  had  taken  the  wrong  track  and  driven  up  to  some  old 
sod  buildings.  I  turned  my  team  around  and  started  to- 
ward what  looked  like  a  good  road,  when  one  of  my  horses 
seemed  to  step  into  a  place.  I  got  out  of  my  wagon  and 
started  alongside  the  team  to  be  sure  that  the  road  was  all 
right  when,  without  a  moment's  notice,  I  became  aware  of 
the  fact  that  I  had  stepped  into  an  old  welt  and  was  going 
down  like  a  shot  out  of  a  gun. 

"I  placed  my  feet  close  together,  stretched  my  arms 
straight  over  my  head  and  said,  "0  God,  have  mercy  on  me," 
and  I  honestly  believe  that  saved  my  life;  but  I  went  down, 
down,  and  it  seemed  to  me  I  would  never  reach  the  bottom. 
The  farther  I  went,  the  faster  I  went,  and  never  seemed  to 
touch  the  sides  at  all. 

"I  supposed,  of  course,  it  would  kill  me  when  I  struck  the 
bottom,  but  God  had  heard  my  prayer.  I  struck  in  the  mud 
and  water,  which  completely  covered  me  over.  I  was  con- 
siderably stunned,  but  was  able  to  straighten  up  and  get  my 
head  above  water.  I  scrambled  around  and  finally  pulled 


194  STORIES   OF  NEBRASKA 

my  legs  from  the  mud  at  the  bottom  and  stood  on  my  feet 
in  the  water,  which  came  just  up  to  my  arms.  I  was  very 
cold  and  I  tried  a  number  of  times  to  get  out  of  the  water, 
only  to  fall  back.  The  curbing  was  somewhat  slimy.  I 
finally  managed  to  break  off  a  little  piece  of  board  and  found 
a  crack  in  which  I  managed  to  fasten  it  and  perched  myself 
upon  it  until  morning. 

"  While  sitting  there  I  heard  my  team  running  away.  In 
its  remaining  by  the  well  was  my  only  hope  of  rescue,  for  I 
was  aware  of  the  fact  that  I  was  at  least  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  the  nearest  house  and  that  no  one  knew  that  I  was 
there. 

" There  I  sat  until  morning.  It  was  about  nine  o'clock 
when  I  fell  in  and  I  was  drenched  and  plastered  with  mud. 
The  only  serious  injury  I  received  was  a  badly  sprained  ankle 
which  gave  me  great  pain.  I  also  had  a  sore  place  in  my 
back,  which  I  found  a  number  of  days  afterwards  was  a 
broken  rib. 

"As  soon  as  daylight  appeared  I  began  to  look  around 
and  take  in  the  situation.  In  looking  up  it  seemed  to  be  at 
least  one  hundred  feet  to  the  top.  I  learned  afterwards 
that  it  was  exactly  143  feet.  It  was  curbed  in  places  with 
a  curb  about  three  feet  square.  There  would  be  a  place 
curbed  for  about  six  to  sixteen  feet  and  then  there  would  be 
a  place  not  curbed  at  all.  The  curbing  was  perfectly  tight, 
not  a  crack  between  the  boards  that  I  could  get  my  fingers 
into,  and  covered  with  a  slimy  mud.  I  at  once  concluded 
that  my  only  chance  for  rescue  was  my  knife,  if  it  had  not 
fallen  out  of  my  pocket  while  floundering  in  the  mud.  So, 
thrusting  my  hand  into  my  pocket, —  there  it  was  and  a  good 
one,  too.  I  took  it  and  began  cutting  footholes  in  the  sides 
of  the  curbing.  It  was  very  slow,  but  sure.  I  never  went 
back  a  foot  after  I  had  gained  it.  When  I  would  get  to  the 
top  of  a  curbing  I  took  the  board  that  I  had  cut  out  and  made 
me  a  seat  in  one  corner  and  in  this  way  I  think  I  got  up  about 
fifty  feet  the  first  day. 


AN  OPEN  WELL  195 

"  Some  time  in  the  afternoon  I  came  to  a  curbing  which  I 
thought  I  could  not  get  through.  It  was  of  solid  one  by  six 
inch  boards,  closely  fitted  together  and  not  less  than  sixteen 
feet  to  the  top  of  it.  I  made  myself  a  good  seat,  fixing  my- 
self as  comfortable  as  possible,  and  concluded  that  I  must 
stay  there  and  await  assistance  or  die  there.  I  stayed  there 
all  the  next  night  and  slept  half  of  the  time,  for  the  night  did 
not  seem  very  long.  I  would  have  been  quite  comfortable 
had  I  not  been  so  wet  and  cold  and  my  feet  pained  me 
terribly.  The  greatest  drawback  was  that  I  had  to  do  most 
of  my  climbing  on  one  foot. 

"I  remained  at  that  point  the  greater  part  of  the  next 
forenoon,  calling  often  for  help.  One  thing  was  in  my  favor. 
I  was  neither  hungry  nor  thirsty.  I  began  to  give  up  all 
hopes.  I  thought  of  my  wife  and  little  boy,  who  were  al- 
ways so  glad  to  see  me  when  I  came  home  from  a  trip.  I 
thought  how  the  little  fellow  would  never  see  his  papa  or  run 
to  meet  him  when  he  returned  home  again. 

11  That  was  too  much.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  get  out  or 
die  in  the  attempt.  So  I  took  a  piece  of  board,  put  some 
sand  on  it,  and  got  the  point  of  my  knife  good  and  sharp  on 
the  sand.  Then  I  began  cutting  away  the  curbing  and  mak- 
ing one  foothole  after  another.  I  cut,  climbing  higher  and 
higher,  and  was  at  last  on  the  top  of  the  curbing.  From 
there  I  would  have  been  comfortable  if  my  feet  had  not  hurt 
me  so  badly.  But  I  cut  holes  in  the  clay  for  my  hands  and 
feet  with  my  knife,  and  finally  got  within  sixteen  feet  of  the 
top. 

"Right  there  I  had  the  worst  obstacle  I  had  met  yet.  It 
was  a  round  curbing  four  feet  high,  perfectly  smooth  inside. 
The  earth  was  washed  out  around  it  until  the  curb  was  only 
held  from  dropping  by  a  little  peg  on  one  side.  I  knew  if  I 
tried  to  go  up  through  it,  it  was  pretty  sure  to  break  loose 
and  go  to  the  bottom  with  me.  So  my  only  chance  was  to  go 
between  the  curb  and  the  wall.  This  I  was  fortunate  in 
doing.  By  going  to  work  and  digging  away  the  wall  in  half 


196 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


an  hour  I  had  a  hole  large  enough  to  let  me  pass  through. 
After  that  it  was  but  a  short  job  to  reach  the  top,  which  I 
did,  and  lay  for  some  time  exhausted. 

"Then  I  knelt  down  and  thanked  Almighty  God  for  spar- 
ing my  life,  as  I  prayed  for  him  to  do,  time  and  again  during 
the  two  days  and  nights  that  I  had  been  in  the  well. 

"But  my  troubles  were  not  yet  at  an  end.     I  was  a  mile 


A  TYPICAL,  FRONTIER  WELL  AND  HOUSE.     (From  photograph  collection  of 

A.  E.  Sheldon.) 

and  a  half  from  a  house  with  a  foot  which  I  could  not  step  on. 
I  cut  some  large  weeds  and  made  out  to  hobble  and  crawl  to 
the  road  about  forty  rods  distant,  and  there  I  lay  until  near- 
ly sundown  looking  for  a  team  that  never  came.  At  last  I 
gave  up  looking  for  anyone  and  started  to  crawl  on  my  hands 
and  knees  to  the  house,  but  I  soon  gave  out  and  had  to  lie 
out  another  night. 

"In  the  morning  I  felt  somewhat  better.     Starting  out 
again  I  finally  arrived  at  the  home  of  Charles  Francis  just  at 


AN  OPEN  WELL  197 

daylight.  I  was  given  food  and  drink,  after  being  without 
them  two  days  and  three  nights. 

"My  team  was  found  the  next  day  after  I  fell  in  the  well. 
The  man  who  found  them  took  them  to  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
filed  an  estray  notice,  and  turned  them  into  his  pasture.  He 
thus  complied  with  the  law  and  by  so  doing  took  away  the 
last  chance  for  me  to  be  found." 

The  story  of  this  escape  from  an  open  well  was  told  in  the 
Nebraska  legislature  of  1897  by  Senator  Beal,  of  Custer 
County.  The  result  was  that  an  act  was  passed  compelling 
land-owners  to  fill  such  wells  on  their  property  to  the  top  with 
dirt  or  the  county  would  do  it  at  their  expense.  This  law 
has  remained  on  our  statute  books  ever  since. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Have  you  ever  seen  a  well  dug?     Tell  about  it. 

2.  How  much  water  is  underground  and  why  is  it  harder  to  get  in  some 

E  laces  than  in  others? 
at  do  you  think  helped  Mr.  Carlin  most  in  getting  out  of  the  well? 


FORT  McPHERSON  MILITARY   CEMETERY 

HUNDREDS  of  soldiers  and  pioneers  died  on  the  Ne- 
braska frontier.  Some  were  killed  by  Indians,  some 
were  drowned,  some  were  frozen  to  death  in  great  storms, 
some  died  of  disease.  Some  of  these  were  buried  where  they 
died.  Many  were  buried  in  the  cemeteries  belonging  to  the 
United  States  forts. 

One  such  cemetery,  Fort  McPherson  Military  Cemetery, 
was  chosen  by  the  United  States  for  the  final  resting  place  of 
the  bodies  of  the  brave  men  and  women  from  all  the  plains 
and  the  mountains.  It  is  in  Lincoln  County,  Nebraska,  on 
the  south  side  of  the  Platte,  about  six  miles  from  Maxwell  on 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  There  are  six  acres  in  the  ceme- 
tery, enclosed  by  a  brick  wall.  Within  are  tall,  beautiful 
cottonwood  trees.  Beneath  the  shade  of  the  trees  are  long 
rows  of  graves,  each  grave  with  a  white  stone  at  the  head. 
Some  are  large  .handsome  monuments  with  the  story  of  the 
dead  cut  upon  them.  Others  are  only  small  white  slabs 
bearing  the  one  word  "Unknown."  There  are  361  of  these 
unknown  graves. 

Within  the  wall  is  a  house  belonging  to  the  cemetery  in 
which  lives  the  officer  in  charge  with  his  family.  Every- 
thing about  the  place  shows  loving  care  and  attention. 
From  a  tall  flagstaff  a  large  United  States  flag  floats  from  sun- 
rise to  sunset  above  the  graves.  Birds  nest  and  rear  their 
young  in  the  trees.  All  is  quiet  and  restful  as  befits  the 
place. 

The  officer  keeps  a  book  wherein  are  recorded  names  of 
the  dead  so  far  as  they  are  known,  where  they  died  and 
where  they  were  first  buried.  Their  bodies  have  been 
brought  here  from  eighteen  different  graveyards  near  the  old 
forts  which  have  been  abandoned  since  the  frontier  days  are 

198 


FORT  McPHERSON  MILITARY  CEMETERY      199 

gone.  From  the  plains  of  Colorado  to  the  mountains  of 
far-off  Idaho,  and  even  from  the  Philippines,  the  buried 
heroes  of  the  frontier  have  been  tenderly  brought  and  laid 
away  in  Nebraska  soil.  One  walks  for  hours  and  reads  the 
stories  written  upon  the  headstones.  Here  are  the  bodies  of 
the  soldiers  killed  with  Lieutenant  Grattan  on  August  18, 
1854,  in  the  beginning  of  the  war  with  the  Sioux.  Here  are 
the  graves  of  women  and  little  children  who  died  on  the 
frontier.  Here  are  the  dead  of  Fort  Kearney  and  Fort 
Laramie.  Here  lies  Spotted  Horse,  a  brave  Pawnee  scout. 
Here  rest  the  heroes  of  the  Sioux  and  Cheyenne  wars.  From 
all  the  well-known  forts  the  dead  are  here  —  as  shown  by  the 
record  books. 

From  Fort  Hall.  Idaho. 11 

From  Fort  Bridger,  Wyoming : 23 

From  Fort  Fetterman,  Wyoming 30 

From  Fort  Laramie,  Wyoming 133 

From  Fort  Crawford,  Colorado 25 

From  Fort  Halleck,  Wyoming 28 

From  Fort  Lewis,  Colorado 41 

From  Fort  Kearney,  Nebraska 198 

From  Fort  Saunders,  Wyoming 51 

From  Fort  Sidney,  Nebraska 4 

From  Fort  Steele,  Wyoming 49 

From  Fort  Hartsuff ,  Nebraska 3 

From  Fort  McPherson,  Nebraska 125 

From  Fort  Independence  Rock,  Wyoming 

From  Fort  White  River  Camp,  Colorado 

From  Fort  Gothenburg,  Nebraska 

From  Fort  Farnam,  Nebraska 

From  Fort  La  Bonte,  Wyoming 8 

From  Fort  Manila,  Philippine  Islands 

Total 737 

There  is  room  now  for  but  a  few  more  graves.  Only 
soldiers  and  their  wives  may  be  buried  here,  and  the  wife 
only  if  her  husband  is  already  interred  here,  and  then  above 
him  in  the  same  grave.  It  is  the  plan  of  the  United  States 
to  gather  the  bodies  of  those  who  died  for  the  nation  into 
national  cemeteries  where  their  graves  will  be  cared  for  so 


200 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


FORT  McPnERSoN  MILITARY  CEMETERT 
(From  photograph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


long  as  the  nation  lives.     There  are  more  than  eighty  of 
these.     This  is  the  only  one  in  Nebraska. 

The  spot  chosen  for  this  cemetery  is  rich  in  memories  of 
the  early  days.  The  Oregon  Trail  runs  within  a  few  yards 

of  the  wall,  the  deep 
lines  made  by  its  wagon 
wheels  still  plain  in  the 
unbroken  sod.  Here 
was  the  place  where  the 
wagon  trains  were  most 
often  attacked,  since 
here  the  trail  runs  close 
to  the  bluffs  where  the 
Indians  could  hide. 
Fort  McPherson  itself 
stood  near  the  bluff  and 
about  a  mile  southeast  of  the  cemetery.  It  was  built  in 
1863  and  abandoned  in  1891. 

Many  visitors  come  each  year  and  linger  among  these 
monuments  which  recall  the  border  days.  The  frontier  is 
gone,  the  old  forts  are  pulled  down,  the  soldiers  have  marched 
away,  the  overland  trails  are  grown  over  with  grass  or 
turned  under  by  the  plow.  But  the  memories  of  the  early 
years  will  always  abide  here.  Gathered  from  all  the  forts 
and  battlefields  of  the  frontier  West  the  bodies  of  these  brave 
men  and  women  here  sleep  their  last  sleep  in  quiet  repose  in 
Nebraska  soil.  At  the  entrance  are  these  words : 

On  fame 's  eternal  camping  ground, 

Their  silent  tents  are  spread; 
While  Glory  guards  with  solemn  round 

The  bivouac  of  the  dead. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Find  Fort  McPherson  on  the  map.     How  far  is  it  from  where  you  live? 

2.  What  reason  for  bringing  the  frontier  dead  hundreds  of  miles  to  Fort 

McPherson  Cemetery? 

3.  What  influence  does  such  a  cemetery  have  upon  the  minds  of  those  who 

visit  it  or  read  about  it? 

4.  From  what  poem  are  the  lines  at  the  entrance? 


A  RAILROAD  FIREMAN'S  JUMP 

ON  September  29,  1907,  the  three  older  children  of  the 
Dixon  family,  living  about  one  mile  from  Seward, 
started  for  school.  Baby  Gladys  Dixon,  who  was  only 
nineteen  months  old,  went  with  them  a  little  distance. 
Away  the  children  ran,  and  Gladys  was  soon  left  behind. 
Still  she  followed  on  until  she  came  to  the  Burlington  Rail- 
road track. 

It  was  nearly  time  for  a  train  to  pass,  but  Gladys  did  not 
know  that.  She  stood  close  to  the  rails  and  waved  her 
hands  as  the  great  black  engine  came  in  sight.  The  engineer 
tried  to  stop  the  train.  Fireman  Lux  looked  out  and  saw  the 
child  upon  the  track.  He  ran  out  on  the  foot-board  and 
reached  the  pilot  just  as  the  engine  was  close  upon  the  little 
one.  There  was  no  time  to  lose.  He  sprang  from  the  pilot 
and  while  in  the  air,  caught  Gladys  in  his  arms,  and  they 
rolled  together  down  the  high  embankment.  What  followed 
is  told  by  Mrs.  Dixon:  "As  soon  as  the  children  started  for 
school,  I  began  to  do  the  morning 's  work  in  the  house.  Just 
as  I  was  washing  the  dishes,  I  heard  the  train  and  the  engine 
gave  a  strange  scream.  I  thought  of  Gladys,  and  my  heart 
gave  a  big  jump.  I  started  out,  and  just  as  I  reached  the 
door,  the  train  stopped  and  Mr.  Lux  was  bringing  the  baby 
up  to  the  house." 

The  railroad  people  gave  Mr.  Lux  a  gold  watch  for  his 
bravery.  The  parents  of  Gladys  gave  him  a  handsome 
diamond  charm  to  wear  with  the  watch,  and  little  Gladys 
received  a  ring  with  a  blue  sapphire  from  the  man  who  saved 
her  life. 

QUESTIONS 

1 .  What  other  story  similar  to  this  have  you  heard? 

2.  Was  it  a  part  of  the  fireman's  duty  to  do  what  he  did?     Why? 

3.  When  ought  one  to  risk  his  own  life  trying  to  save  another? 

201 


NEBRASKA'S  GREAT  SEAL 

THE  great  seal  of  a  state  is  an  iron  or  steel  instrument 
which  stamps  an  imprint  upon  important  papers  and 
documents.  The  imprint  is  itself  often  called  the  great  seal 
of  the  state,  for  it  is  the  sign  of  the  state 's  power  and  authori- 
ty. 

The  first  great  seal  of  Nebraska  was  made  when  Nebraska 
was  a  territory.  Its  picture  is  shown  on  page  203.  Its  im- 
print is  found  only  on  the  old  documents. 

When  Nebraska  became  a  state  in  1867  the  legislature 
passed  an  act  providing  for  the  making  of  a  new  great  seal. 
The  act  prescribed  the  design  for  the  new  great  seal  as  fol- 
lows: 

The  eastern  part  of  the  circle  to  be  represented  by  a  steamboat  as- 
cending the  Missouri  River;  the  mechanic  arts  to  be  represented  by  a 
smith  with  a  hammer  and  anvil;  in  the  foreground,  agriculture  to  be 
represented  by  a  settler's  cabin,  sheaves  of  wheat,  and  stalks  of  growing 
corn;  in  the  background  a  train  of  cars  heading  towards  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  on  the  extreme  west,  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  be  plainly 
in  view;  around  the  top  of  this  circle,  to  be  in  capital  letters,  the  motto, 
"Equality  Before  the  Law,"  and  the  circle  to  be  surrounded  with  the 
words,  "Great  Seal  of  the  State  of  Nebraska,  March  1,  1867." 

The  great  seal  was  made  as  ordered  and  is  now  kept  by 
the  Secretary  of  State  in  the  Capitol  at  Lincoln.  The  pic- 
ture of  the  imprint  given  here  is  the  exact  size  of  the  great 
seal. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Compare  these  two  seals  and  tell  which  one  you  prefer  and  why? 

2.  Why  does  a  State  have  a  seal? 

3.  In  which  direction  are  you  looking  in  the  picture  of  the  State  Seal. 

4.  What  river  between  you  and  the  Rocky  Mountains? 


202 


NEBRASKA  TERRITORIAL  SEAL 


NEBRASKA  STATE  SEAL.     (From  photograph  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 

203 


FOR  many  years  Nebraska  had  no  official  state  flower. 
The  people  were  too  busy  making  homes  to  give  the 
selection  of  a  state  flower  much  thought  and  too  thankful  for 
every  flower  which  grew  on  the  prairies  and  along  the  streams 
to  choose  from  among  the  anemones  and  violets,  the  roses, 

the  amorphas  or  shoestrings, 
the  spiderworts,  the  puccoons 
or  Indian  paint  brushes,  the 
goldenrods  and  sunflowers,  one 
flower  which  should  be  pre- 
ferred before  all  the  others. 

As  the  years  went  on  the 
feeling  grew  that  Nebraska 
should  have  a  state  flower  and 
the  people  set  about  choosing 
one.  It  was  agreed  that  the 
flower  chosen  should  be  in  it- 
self a  fit  emblem  of  Nebraska 
and  that  it  should  be  found 
growing  abundantly  in  all  parts 
of  the  state.  So  they  looked 
over  the  prairies,  the  plains, 
the  woods,  the  valleys  and  the 
sandhills.  Everywhere  they 
found  the  bright,  graceful, 
cheery  goldenrod,  beautiful  not 
only  in  the  tender  green  leaf 


THE  GOLDEN  ROD,  NEBRASKA'S 
FLOWER 


and  bud  of  springtime,  in  the  golden  glory  of  summer  and 
autumn,  but  also  in  its  quaker  colored  garb  in  our  winter 
landscapes.  And  they  said,  "The  goldenrod  shall  be  Ne- 
braska's flower."  This  choice  was  made  in  1895,  when  the 

204 


NEBRASKA'S  FLOWER  205 

Nebraska  legislature  passed  an  act  making  the  goldenrod 
the  official  flower  of  our  state. 

There  is  never  a  time  when  the  goldenrod  cannot  be  found 
in  our  landscape. 

QUESTIONS 

1     Have  you  found  the  goldenrod  in  Nebraska  in  spring?     In  summer? 

In  autumn?     In  winter? 
2.   Why  is  it  especially  well  fitted  to  be  Nebraska's  flower? 


ARBOR  DAY 

XTEBRASKA  has  given  many  good  ideas  to  the  world,  but 
•^  none  better  than  the  idea  of  Arbor  Day.  The  early 
settlers  of  Nebraska  looked  out  from  the  little  fringe  of  woods 
along  the  streams  upon  a  treeless  prairie.  Natural  prairie 
groves  like  those  of  Iowa  and  Illinois  were  lacking.  The 
far-sighted  fathers  of  this  state  studied  and  thought  much 
upon  this  question.  All  the  early  speeches  and  the  early 
newspapers  are  filled  with  the  thought  that  the  prairie  must 
be  plowed  and  trees  must  be  planted  and  made  to  grow  be- 
fore the  people  would  have  homes  where  they  would  like  to 
live  and  bring  up  their  children.  Out  of  these  plans  and 
thinking  came  the  idea  of  Arbor  Day.  The  first  record  of 
this  idea  is  so  interesting  and  important  that  it  is  here  given 

in  full: 

Lincoln,  Nebr.,  January  4,  1872, 

8^0 'clock  A.  M. 
State  Board  of  Agriculture  met. 

J.  Sterling  Morton  offered  the  following  resolution,  which  was  unan- 
imously adopted: 

Resolved,  That,  Wednesday,  the  10th  day  of  April,  1872,  be  and  the 
same  is  hereby  especially  set  apart  and  consecrated  for  tree  planting  in  the 
State  of  Nebraska,  and  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  hereby  name  it 
"Arbor  Day,"  and  to  urge  upon  the  people  of  the  State,  the  vital  impor- 
tance of  tree  planting,  hereby  offer  a  special  premium  of  one  hundred  dol- 
lars to  the  county  agricultural  society  of  that  county  in  Nebraska,  which 
shall  upon  that  day,  plant  properly,  the  largest  number  of  trees;  and  a 
farm  library  of  twenty-five  dollars'  worth  of  books  to  that  person  who,  on 
that  day,  shall  plant  properly,  in  Nebraska  the  greatest  number  of  trees. 

Upon  this  first  Arbor  Day  millions  of  trees  were  planted 
in  Nebraska.  Nature  had  kindly  provided  the  young  trees 
by  sowing  the  seed  of  the  Nebraska  trees,  especially  the 
cottonwood,  soft  maple,  box  elder,  ash  and  elm  upon  the 
sandbars  and  along  the  edges  of  the  belt  of  timber  which 

206 


FIRST  ARBOR  DAY  PROCLAMATION.     (Photo  from  Original  in  Statehouse.) 


207 


208  STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 

bordered  the  rivers.  In  the  morning  a  multitude  of  the 
early  settlers  left  their  work  and  gathered  thousands  of 
young  trees  to  plant  in  groves  along  the  fire  guards  about 
their  claims.  The  young  cottonwood  was  the  most  plentiful 
and  easily  obtained.  Every  strip  of  sandbar  along  the 
streams  was  a  dense  nursery  for  this  tree  whose  seeds  had 
drifted  there  upon  the  high  water  and  had  been  covered  with 
a  thin  layer  of  mud  and  sand.  One  could  gather  them  as 
fast  as  he  could  pull  them  up  and  tie  them  into  bundles. 
This  is  one  reason  why  the  older  groves  of  trees  upon  Ne- 
braska prairies  were  mostly  cottonwood. 

The  early  fathers  of  Nebraska  were  not  content  with  the 
great  success  of  the  first  Arbor  Day.  They  saw  in  the  future 
long  lines  of  immigrants  coming  here  to  make  their  homes. 
Before  there  could  be  homes  with  gardens  and  orchards  there 
must  be  windbreaks.  To  secure  these  they  planned  that 
every  farm  should  have  a  forest  and  every  year  in  Nebraska 
annals  an  Arbor  Day.  The  record  of  that  plan  in  the  reports 
of  the  state  board  of  agriculture  reads  thus : 

January  8,  1874,  9  A.  M. 

C.  H.  Walker  offered  the  following  resolution,  which  was,  on  motion, 
unanimously  adopted: 

Resolved,  That,  the  Second  Wednesday  of  April  of  each  year  be,  and 
the  same  is  hereby  designated,  dedicated,  and  set  apart  as  Arbor  Day,  for 
the  State  of  Nebraska,  and  that  the  Agriculturists  of  Nebraska,  be  re- 
quested to  petition  the  Legislature  to  make  said  "Arbor  Day"  a  legal 
holiday;  that  until  so  made  a  holiday,  the  Governor  be  requested  to  call 
attention  to  said  "Arbor  Day"  by  proclamation,  and  request  the  people 
of  the  State  to  observe  it  by  planting  Forest,  Fruit,  and  Ornamental  Trees. 

Robert  W.  Furnas  of  Brownville  was  governor  of  Ne- 
braska in  this  year.  The  first  Arbor  Day  proclamation  was 
made  by  him.  You  may  see  on  page  207  a  picture  of  it 
as  it  appears  in  the  old  records  of  the  governor's  office  in 
Lincoln.  After  this  first  Arbor  Day  proclamation  other 
governors  of  Nebraska  made  similar  proclamations,  and  the 
planting  of  trees  and  the  observance  of  Arbor  Day  went  on 


ARBOR  DAY 


209 


from  year  to  year.  In  1885  the  Nebraska  legislature  fixed 
April  22d,  the  birthday  of  J.  Sterling  Morton,  as  the  date  for 
Arbor  Day  and  made  it  a  legal  holiday. 

Another  inducement  for  the  early  settlers  to  plant  trees 
was  an  act  of  the  Nebraska  legislature  in  1869  under  which 
for  every  acre  of  forest  trees  planted  by  a  settler  $100  worth 


J.  STERLING  MORTON  AND  ROBERT  W.  FURNAS. 
lion  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


(From  photograph  collec- 


of  his  property  was  exempt  from  taxation.  Money  was  very 
scarce  in  those  days.  Here  was  a  chance  for  the  settlers  to 
pay  their  taxes  by  planting  trees  on  their  own  claims.  As 
a  result  of  this  law  nearly  all  the  claims  soon  had  enough 
trees  growing  on  them  to  exempt  the  settlers  from  paying 
any  taxes.  Consequently  so  little  money  came  into  the  state 
treasury  that  there  was  not  enough  to  pay  expenses  and  the 
state  was  compelled  to  borrow.  The  law  was  repealed  in 
1877,  but  thousands  of  groves  on  the  prairies  of  eastern 
Nebraska  stand  to-day  as  witnesses  to  its  benefits. 

Since  our  first  Arbor  Day  all  the  other  states  except  three 


210 


STORIES  OF  NEBRASKA 


and  many  foreign  countries  have  followed  the  good  example 
of  Nebraska  by  establishing  Arbor  Days. 

In  1895  the  people  of  Nebraska  were  so  much  in  love  with 
the  Arbor  Day  idea  that  both  houses  of  the  legislature  passed 
a  joint  resolution,  which  was  signed  on  April  4th  by  Governor 
Holcomb,  as  follows: 

Whereas,  the  state  of  Nebraska  has  heretofore,  in  a  popular  sense,  been 
designated  by  names  not  in  harmony  with  its  history,  industry,  or  ambi- 
tion; and 

Whereas,  the  state  is  pre-eminently  a  tree-planting  state;  and  "where- 
as, numerous  and  honorable  state  organizations  have  by  resolution, 
designated  Nebraska  as  the  'Tree  Planter's  State;"  therefore  be  it  re- 
solved, by  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  Nebraska,  that  Nebraska  shall 
hereafter  in  a  popular  sense,  be  known  and  referred  to  as  the  'Tree  Plant- 
er's State." 

Hence  it  is  that  children  born  in  Nebraska  are  no  longer 
called  "bugeaters,"  but  "tree  planters." 

It  has  well  been  said  that  all 
other  holidays  look  backward  to 
some  great  event  in  *human  his- 
tory. Arbor  Day  alone  looks  for- 
ward. It  looks  forward  to  a  future 
when  all  the  desert  places  of  the 
earth  shall  be  made  glad  with 
shade  of  trees,  the  songs  of  birds, 
the  laughter  of  children  and  the 
happiness  of  homes  surrounded  by 
groves  and  gardens  planted  and 
cared  for  by  the  hand  of  man. 

Other  lands  have  given  to  the 
world  ideas,  and  days  to  be  kept 
in  memory.  Arbor  Day  is  Ne- 


A  NEBRASKA  TREE.     (From 
photograph  by  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


braska's  gift  to  the  world,  destined  through  all  ages  and 
in  all  lands  to  grow  in  meaning  and  always  to  be  kept  by 
the  planting  of  trees. 


ARBOR  DAY  211 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  did  the  world  wait  so  long  for  the  idea  of  Arbor  Day? 

2.  What  have  trees  done  for  Nebraska? 

3.  Why  have  other  states  and  countries  adopted  the  Nebraska  idea  of  Arbor 

Day? 

4.  Have  you  planted  a  tree?     Tell  about  it. 


PART  II 

A  Short  History  of  Nebraska 


CHAPTER   I 
EARLIEST  NEBRASKA 

A  Land  under  Water. —  Earliest  Nebraska  was  a  land 
under  water  in  the  bottom  of  a  great  inland  sea.  Great 
fishes  swam  in  the  water.  Shell  fish  lived  in  the  shallows 
and  died  and  left  their  skeletons  in  the  soft  mud.  Corals 
grew  and  lily-like  sea  plants  lifted  their  heads  above  the 
waves  and  died.  Slowly  the  sea  filled  up.  The  skeletons 
of  millions  of  dead  animals  and  plants  hardened  into  rock 
and  became  the  limestone  whose  edges  now  appear  on 
the  sides  of  ravines  and  along  the  streams  of  eastern  Ne- 
braska. The  sea  bottom  slowly  rose  and  land  appeared, 
a  land  of  marshes  and  forests  in  which  grew  great  ferns  and 
trees  which  are  now  found  only  far  south.  In  this  swampy 
land  lived  great  lizards,  some  of  them  taller  than  elephants 
and  much  longer,  with  many  other  strange  animals.  After 
many  thousand  years  there  was  more  dry  land,  and  trees  of 
all  kinds  grew  in  Nebraska,  splendid  oaks,  maples,  beeches 
and  willows  among  them.  We  find  their  leaves  today 
pressed  and  printed  in  the  red  sandstone  rocks. 

A  Land  of  Camels,  Tigers  and  Little  Horses. —  Then 
the  sea  came  again  and  covered  the  land.  New  kinds  of 
shells  and  fish  lived  in  the  sea  and  left  their  skeletons  on 
the  bottom.  Again  the  land  rose,  was  covered  with  grass 
and  trees  and  Nebraska  became  the  home  of  camels,  tapirs, 

213 


214  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

monkeys,  tigers  and  little  horses,  some  of  them  no  larger 
than  dogs.  The  rhinoceros,  elephant  and  other  large 
animals  lived  here.  The  bones  of  all  these  are  found 
to-day  beneath  our  soil. 

A  Land  of  Ice. —  Then  came  moving  fields  of  ice  from  the 
north  plowing  across  eastern  Nebraska  and  leaving,  when 
they  melted,  deep  beds  of  clay  and  the  large  pink  boulders 
seen  on  the  hillsides.  Two  or  three  times  these  ice  fields 
covered  the  land.  The  climate  of  Nebraska  became  so 
cold  that  the  warm  country  plants  and  animals  died. 
Other  plants  and  animals  came  in.  The  grassy  plains 
appeared.  The  climate  became  drier.  The  rivers  began 
to  cut  out  their  present  valleys.  Nebraska  as  we  know  it 
to-day  came  into  being. 


The  First  Nebraska  People. —  A  long  time  before  the 
white  men  came,  men  and  women  and  children  lived  in 
Nebraska.  They  lived  in  earth  houses  built  upon  the 
rounded  tops  of  the  hills  not  more  than  half  a  mile  from  the 
springs  and  streams  where  there  was  water.  They  lived 
upon  the  tops  of  the  hills  because  they  were  afraid  to  live 
in  the  valleys  for  there  were  enemies  all  about  seeking  to 
kill  and  to  rob  them.  From  the  hill  tops  they  could  see  the 
enemies  before  they  arrived. 

How  They  Lived. —  These  men  and  women  had  a  very 
hard  life,  although  their  home  was  in  a  land  that  was  beauti- 
ful and  rich.  Their  life  was  hard  because  they  had  to  make 
out  of  trees,  bone  or  stone  all  the  tools  they  used.  Arrows 
and  spears  to  kill  game,  knives  to  cut  it  into  meat,  axes 
to  chop  trees  and  hammers  to  drive  stakes  and  to  fight  their 
enemies, —  all  these  tools  and  many  more  were  made  from 
stone.  They  made  also  out  of  bone  curious  little  needles, 
gimlets  and  pinchers  with  which  to  sew  their  clothing  and 
to  aid  them  in  doing  their  other  work.  It  took  a  great  deal 
of  time  to  make  these  tools,  so  the  men  and  women  who 


EARLIEST  NEBRASKA 


215 


dwelt   in   Nebraska   in   these  prehistoric   days  were  kept 

busy  from  one  year's  end  to  the  other  trying  to  get  a  living 

of  the  very  simplest  kind.     They  lived  so  much  in  fear  of 

enemies    that    every  family  made 

a  hiding  place  for  its  food  and  tools 

in  the  earth  floor  of  its  house.  These 

hiding  places  were  holes  shaped  like 

a  bottle  and  were  six  or  eight  feet 

long,  with  a  narrow  neck  coming 

up  to  the  dirt  floor.    They  covered 

this  narrow  neck  with  sticks  and 

with  clay  and  sometimes  built  fires 

on  top  of  it  so  that  strangers  would 

never  suspect  that  it  was  there. 

Their  Graves. —  These  people 
buried  their  dead  in  mounds.  They 
sometimes  covered  the  bodies  with 
piles  of  rock,  placing  alongside  the 
bodies  stone  axes,  arrows,  spears  and 
many  other  useful  things  which  the 
living  would  gladly  have  kept  but 
which  they  laid  in  the  grave  because 
they  believed  the  spirit  of  the  dead 
would  some  day  need  these  things  and  be  able  to  use  them. 

How  We  Know  about  Them. —  All  that  we  know  of  these 
early  people  we  have  learned  from  their  graves  and  from 
the  floors  and  fireplaces  of  their  houses,  deeply  covered 
now  with  several  feet  of  Nebraska  soil,  and  from  the  curious 
bottle-shaped  holes  beneath  their  houses  in  which  they 
hid  their  food  and  tools.  Yet  from  these  we  know  what  they 
ate,  what  kinds 'of  animals  they  killed,  how  they  sewed  their 
clothing  together  and  how  they  cut  down  large  trees  and 
used  them  for  posts  in  building  their  houses.  We  also  know 
some  things  which  they  believed  about  a  spirit  world  and 
about  the  life  beyond  the  grave. 

They   made   pottery,    moulding   the   clay,    when   they 


ANCIENT  NEBRASKA  TOOLS. 

(Courtesy  R.  F.  Gilder, 

Omaha,  Nebraska.) 

a,  b,  c,  d,  fish  hooks;  f,  buckle; 
g,  h,  j,  needles;  i,  shuttle;  k,  bone 
implement. 


216 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


found  some  that  was  plastic  and  strong,  into  cups,  jugs, 
pitchers  and  wide-mouthed  vessels  which  they  could  use 
in  cooking  their  food.  There  were  several  kinds  of  pottery 
made  by  these  people,  some  yellow,  some  red,  some  black, 
some  with  pounded  clam  shells  mixed  with  the  clay  to  make 
it  tough  and  strong,  some  with  sand  and  pounded  rocks  for 
the  same  purpose. 

Their  Homes. —  Most  of  the  homes  of  these  people 
were  in  the  eastern  part  of  Nebraska  along  the  bluffs  of  the 
Missouri  River  and  on  the  hills  near  the  small  streams  flowing 

into  the  Missouri.  Their 
buried  fireplaces  have 
also  been  found  in  the 
Bad  Lands  of  north- 
western Nebraska  and 
South  Dakota.  They 
never  lived  far  from 
wood  and  water.  They 
had  no  horses  and  could 
not  easily  cross  the 
great  plains.  They  were 
different  from  any  of  the  Indian  tribes  found  in  Nebraska 
by  the  first  white  people  who  came.  Faces  found  upon 
stone  and  clay  images  in  their  houses  resemble  some  of 
those  found  in  Mexico  and  Central  America,  but  we  do  not 
know  where  these  earliest  people  of  Nebraska  came  from  or 
what  became  of  them. 

How  We  Know  Their  Story. —  Their  houses  have  long 
since  disappeared.  Several  feet  of  soil  cover  the  sites. 
In  many  cases  trees  two  or  three  hundred  years  old  stand 
above  them.  You  could  hardly  tell  to-day  that  houses 
had  ever  been  there  or  that  the  children  had  ever  played 
upon  their  earth  floors  and  gathered  about  the  fireplaces 
in  the  center,  eager  for  the  evening  meal  and  for  the  stories 
of  hunting  and  long  journeys  made  on  foot  which  the  older 
people  told.  But  just  as  if  your  house  should  be  destroyed 


ANCIENT  NEBRASKA  HOUSE.     (Courtesy  R. 
F.  Gilder,  Omaha,  Nebraska.) 


EARLIEST  NEBRASKA  217 

and  the  toys  and  tools  within  it  should  be  buried  beneath 
several  feet  of  soil  for  hundreds  of  years,  until  some  future 
man,  digging  with  a  spade,  should  find  these  things,  which 
you  now  use  in  your  daily  life,  and  from  them  know  how 
you  lived  and  what  you  thought;  so  to-day  from  these 
relics  and  from  these  gifts  laid  away  in  the  mound-covered 
graves  upon  the  hills,  we  know  the  story  of  these  earliest 
people  in  Nebraska. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  How  do  we  know  that  earliest  Nebraska  was  under  Water,  later  the  home 

of  camels,  monkeys  and  elephants,  later  covered  with  ice? 

2.  What  difference,  if  any,  in  the  house  sites  of  the  prehistoric  people  and 

of  the  first  white  settlers?     Why? 

3.  What  became  of  the  little  horses  no  larger  than  dogs  which  lived  in  Ne- 

braska in  early  ages? 

4.  What  was  the  belief  of  the  prehistoric  Nebraska  people  regarding  another 

life  and  how  do  we  know? 

5.  How  much  land  did  a  prehistoric  family  need  to  get  its  living?     Why? 

6.  How  far  from  a  stream  or  lake  could  these  people  live?     Why? 

7.  What  schools  had  the  children  of  these  people  and  what  did  they  study? 

8.  Is  there  anything  in  your  locality  which  tells  about  earliest  Nebraska 

and,  if  so,  what  does  it  tell? 


CHAPTER  II 
NEBRASKA   UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

The  First  White  Men.  The  Spanish. —  Columbus  sailed 
from  Spain  across  the  ocean  and  found  a  new  world.  After 
him  came  the  men  and  ships  of  many  nations  to  claim 

part  of  the  new  world.  First,  the 
Spaniards  came  to  Florida  in  1513, 
and  then  to  Mexico  in  1520.  All 
the  vast  country  north  they  called 
Florida,  so  that  Nebraska  was  a 
part  of  Florida  upon  their  maps. 
In  1541,  the  Spaniards,  under  Cor- 
onado,  crossed  the  plains  from  New 
Mexico  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
country.  In  the  same  year  Span- 
iards under  De  Soto  crossed  the 
Mississippi  River  into  Arkansas 
and  marched  northwest  nearly 
to  Kansas.  These  Spaniards  did 
not  remain,  but  afterwards  Spain 
claimed  all  the  country  because  Spaniards  were  the  first 
white  men  to  find  it. 

The  French. —  The  French  came  to  this  region  more 
than  a  hundred  years  after  the  Spaniards.  From  Quebec, 
where  they  first  settled  in  1608,  their  missionaries  and  fur 
traders  pushed  west  and  southwest  to  Lake  Superior  and 
Lake  Michigan.  Here  they  first  heard  of  a  great  river  to 
the  west.  Father  Marquette,  one  of  these  missionary  ex- 
plorers, wrote  a  letter  from  his  Mission  on  Lake  Su- 
perior in  1670,  in  which  he  says:  "Six  or  seven  days 
below  the  Illinois  Indians  is  another  river  on  which 
are  some  great  nations  who  use  wooden  canoes.  Of  these 

218 


SPANISH,  FRENCH  AND  ENG- 
LISH FLAGS.  (Drawing  by 
Miss  Martha  Turner.) 


NEBRASKA  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS  219 

we  cannot  speak  until  next  year,  if  God  bestows  the  grace 
upon  us  to  lead  us  there." 

Father  Marquette  and  Louis  Joliet,  his  companion, 
paddled  in  a  birch  bark  canoe  from  Lake  Michigan  up  the 
Fox  River,  carried  their  canoe  two  miles  across  the  land  to 
the  Wisconsin  River,  floated  down  the  Wisconsin  and  on 
June  17,  1673,  first  saw  the  Mississippi  River  near  Prairie 
du  Chien  in  Wisconsin.  They  paddled  their  canoe  down 
the  Mississippi  for  many  days.  The  country  was  all  new 
and  strange.  In  one  place  they  saw  a  great  monster  painted 
upon  the  rocks.  The  next  day  they  came  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Missouri  river  and  this  is  what  they  say: 

The  Pekitanoui  or  Missouri  River. —  "  As  we  were  gently 
sailing  down  the  still  clear  water,  we  heard  a  noise  of  a 
rapid  into  which  we  were  about  to  fall.  I  have  seen  nothing 
more  frightful.  A  mass  of  large  trees  entire  with  branches, 
a  real  floating  island  came  from  Pekitanoui,  so  impetuous 
that  we  could  not,  without  great  danger,  expose  ourselves 
to  pass  across.  The  agitation  was  so  great  that  the  water 
was  all  muddy,  and  could  not  get  clear.  The  Pekitanoui 
is  a  considerable  river  coming  from  the  northwest,  which 
empties  into  the  Mississippi.  Many  towns  are  located  on 
this  river  and  I  hope  by  it  to  make  the  discovery  of  the 
Vermillion  or  California  Sea." 

The  river  they  called  the  Pekitanoui  we  now  call  the 
Missouri. 

The  First  Maps.— From  the  Indians  who  lived  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Missouri  they  first  heard  of  the  Indians  who 
lived  in  Nebraska  and  learned  their  names.  Thus  the 
first  maps  of  the  Mississippi  River  made  by  the  French  have 
upon  them  the  names  of  the  Indian  tribes  living  up  the 
Missouri  or  Pekitanoui  River  —  the  Panis  (Pawnees), 
Octotatoes  (Otoes)  and  Mahas  (Omahas). 

In  1699  French  sea  ships  under  commanders  named  Bien- 
ville  and  d'Iberville  found  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
and  began  a  settlement  where  afterward  was  built  the  city 


220  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

of  New  Orleans.  Under  these  discoveries  and  those  made  by 
LaSalle  in  1682  France  claimed  all  the  land  whose  waters  ran 
into  the  Mississippi  River.  This  claim  was  based  on  a  law 
of  nations  which  gave  all  the  country,  drained  by  any  river, 
to  the  nation  first  settling  upon  it.  French  fur  traders  came 
up  the  Missouri  and  talked  and  traded  with  the  Indian  tribes. 
On  their  return  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  some  of  them 
told  such  stories  as  these  about  the  Nebraska  country: 

Country  Finest  in  the  World. —  "Among  the  Canadians 
who  have  arrived,  are  two  who  went  for  two  years  on  the 
Missouri  from  village  to  village.  They  report  that  they 
were  near  the  mines  of  the  Spaniards.  They  stopped  at 
a  village  of  savages  to  whom  the  Spaniards  only  come  to 
trade  for  buffalo  hides,  of  which  they  make  harnesses  for 
their  mules.  They  report  that  the  Spaniards  are  at  war 
with  three  or  four  large  nations,  which  obliges  them  to  go 
with  breastplates  and  helmets  as  a  protection  against 
arrows.  This  they  do  in  order  that  the  savages  may  take 
them  for  spirits.  These  men  said  that  this  country  is  the 
finest  in  the  world  and  that  on  the  Missouri  live  nations 
who  have  horses." 

Horses  and  Wild  Cattle. —  "In  ascending  the  Missouri 
River,  there  is  found  an  abundance  of  oxen  and  cows  beyond 
imagination.  These  beasts  have  hair  and  wool  according 
to  the  season.  This  river  is  fine  and  grand.  It  is  believed 
that  great  discoveries  can  be  made  there.  Those  who  have 
ascended  the  Missouri  say  that  it  is  the  real  source  of  the 
Mississippi.  The  country  they  have  seen  along  this  stream 
surpasses  in  beauty  and  riches  that  of  the  rest  of  the  colony. 
It  is  situated  in  a  pleasant  climate  which  produces  every- 
thing in  the  greatest  abundance  without  cultivation.  The 
air  is  salubrious,  the  seasons  are  regular  and  well  tempered. 
The  land  is  covered  with  all  kinds  of  wood.  The  immense 
prairies  are  abounding  in  wild  cattle,  and  all  other  kinds  of 
wild  animals.  Salt  is  in  abundance  although  far  from  the 
sea." 


NEBRASKA  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS  221 

Thus  it  came  that  France  and  Spain  each  claimed 
Nebraska.  Spain  claimed  it  because  Spaniards  first  dis- 
covered Florida  and  they  considered  Nebraska  a  part  of 
Florida.  Besides  this  Coronado  had  visited  the  Nebraska 
region  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  any  other  white 
man.  France  claimed  it  because  she  had  first  settled  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  waters  of  the  Ne- 
braska region  flowed  into  the  Mississippi.  Further  than  this 
French  fur  traders  were  trading  and  living  with  the  Nebras- 
ka Indians,  while  the  Spaniards  had  visited  the  country 
once  and  left  it. 

France,  Spain  and  Nebraska  Indians. —  France  and  Spain 
each  tried  to  get  the  good  will  of  the  Nebraska  Indians. 
The  nearest  Spanish  settlements  were  in  the  Rio  Grande 
valley  in  what  is  now  New  Mexico,  while  the  nearest 
French  settlements  were  along  the  Mississippi  in  Illinois 
and  Missouri.  It  was  far  easier  for  the  French  to  come  up 
the  river  in  boats  to  Nebraska  than  it  was  for  the  Spanish 
to  reach  it  by  the  long  journey  across  the  plains.  There 
were  wars  between  the  Indians  in  the  Nebraska  and  Kansas 
country,  with  the  French  helping  one  side  and  the  Spanish 
the  other.  To  aid  in  one  of  these  wars,  Spain  sent  an 
expedition  which  is  called  the  Spanish  Caravan. 

The  English  Claim  to  Nebraska. —  England  also  claimed 
the  Nebraska  country.  The  King  of  England  gave  grants 
of  land  to  the  first  English  settlers  along  the  Atlantic  coast. 
Each  grant  was  a  number  of  miles  wide  to  the  north  and  to 
the  south  and  stretched  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
"South  Sea,"  as  the  Pacific  Ocean  was  then  called.  The 
Nebraska  region  was  thus  thrown  within  the  boundaries 
of  the  grants  given  to  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut. 
But  the  settlers  in  these  early  English  colonies  were  kept  so 
busy  making  homes  and  fighting  Indians  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  that  they  did  not  cross  the  Allegheny  Mountains 
and  never  saw  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  rivers  nor  the 
beautiful  prairies  of  Nebraska  which  the  King  of  England 


222 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


had  given  to  them.     But,  although  they  never  saw  them, 
they  and  their  King  still  claimed  them. 

Thus  in  those  far  away  early  years  each  of  three  great 
nations,  Spain,  France  and  England,  strove  to  bring  Ne- 
braska under  its  flag.  The  Indian  people  who  lived  in 
Nebraska  hunted  the  buffalo,  planted  corn  and  knew  very 
little  about  all  this.  They  had  never  seen  the  English. 


30- 


MAP  SHOWING  GRANTS  BY  THE  ENGLISH  KING  AND  THEIR  RELATION  TO 
NEBRASKA.     (Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

They  did  not  care  for  the  Spaniards.  They  knew  and 
liked  the  French.  Then  came  the  great  war  between  the 
French  and  English  colonies  in  America.  It  is  known  as 
the  French  and  Indian  war,  and  control  of  the  Mississippi 
river  together  with  land  whose  waters  flowed  into  it,  was 
fought  for  in  it.  In  this  war  Washington,  then  a  young 
man,  fought  with  the  English  against  the  French.  The 
struggle  lasted  seven  years.  France  was  defeated  and  in 
1763  gave  up  all  the  land  she  had  claimed;  that  east  of  the 
Mississippi  to  England;  that  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
including  the  Nebraska  region,  to  Spain. 

Nebraska  a  Spanish  Province.—  Nebraska  thus  became 
Spanish.     There  was  a  Spanish  governor  at  New  Orleans 


NEBRASKA  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 


223 


and  another  at  St.  Louis.  The  Spanish  flag  now  floated 
over  this  whole  region.  But  the  people  who  came  up  the 
Missouri  River  to  Nebraska  were  still  French,  although  they 
had  a  Spanish  governor.  They  spoke  the  French  language, 
they  gave  French  names  to  towns  and  rivers,  they  married 
Indian  women  and  their  children,  half  French  and  half 
Indian,  grew  up  to  become  leaders  in  the  Nebraska  tribes. 

Napoleon  Sells  Nebraska  to  the  United  States. —  While 
Spain  was  ruling  over  the  Nebraska  country,  the  people  of 
France  rose  against  their  king  and  nobles  in  the  great 
revolution  of  1789.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  soon  became 
the  leader  of  that  revolution  and  later  became  emperor  of 
France.  He  planned  to  regain  the  new  world  colonies 
which  France  had  lost,  and  bought  back  from  Spain  all  the 
land,  including  the  Nebraska  country,  that  France  once 
had  held  west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  Napoleon  began 
to  make  a  great  French  province  here,  in  which  thousands 
of  emigrants  from  France  were  to  find  homes.  But  war 
was  coming  on  between  France  and  England.  England 
had  the  strongest  navy  in  the  world.  Napoleon  knew  that 
the  English  ships  would  sail  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
and  that  the  French  colonists  could  not  resist  them.  In 
order  to  save  Louisiana  from  sur- 
render to  England,  he  resolved  to 
sell  it  at  once  to  the  United  States. 
This  was  done  in  1803  and  is 
known  in  our  history  as  "The 
Louisiana  Purchase." 

Our  Flag. —  Three  flags  of  three 
great  nations,  Spain,  France  and 
England,  sought  to  wave  over 
the  beautiful  prairies  of  Nebraska.  AMERICAN  FLAG 

None  of  them  prevailed.     In  their 

stead  the  Stars  and  Stripes  became  our  emblem.  Under 
its  folds  Nebraska  has  become  one  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  Instead  of  dark-haired  Spaniards  from  Mexico, 


224  A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF  NEBRASKA 

or  quick-eyed  emigrants  from  sunny  France,  Americans 
settled  Nebraska.  To  her  prairies  have  since  come  settlers 
from  all  parts  of  Europe,  speaking  many  tongues  when  they 
came,  but  all  in  good  time  becoming  Americans  and  Ne- 
braskans  with  one  common  language  and  one  common  hope, 
the  hope  of  making  their  state  "the  best  and  most  beauti- 
ful land  in  all  the  world,"  as  the  early  French  and  early 
Spaniards  reported  it  to  be. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Which  country  had  the  better  right  to  Nebraska,  Spain  or  France?     Why? 

2.  Was  what  the  early  French  fur  traders  said  of  this  region  true? 

3.  What  right  had  the  King  of  England  to  Nebraska? 

4.  Did  the  Indians  need  an  European  flag  over  this  country?     Why? 

5.  What  French  or  Spanish  names  dp  you  find  on  the  map  of  Nebraska? 

6.  Why  is  our  flag  the  Stars  and  Stripes? 


CHAPTER   III 


NEBRASKA  INDIANS  AS  THE  WHITE  MEN  FOUND 

THEM 

The  first  white  men  who  came  to  this  region  found 
several  tribes  and  nations  of  Indians  living  here  and  claim- 
ing Nebraska  as  their  home. 

The  Otoe. —  In  the  southeast  lived  the  Otoe  tribe,  hunt- 
ing as  far  east  as  the  Mississippi  River  and  claiming  Nebraska 
as  far  west  as  the  Blue  rivers. 

The  Omaha. — On  both  sides  of  the  Missouri  River  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Platte  as  far  north  as  Little  Bow  River, 

in  Cedar  County,  lived 
the  Omaha  tribe.  They 
claimed  Nebraska 
westward  as  far  as  the 
Elkhorn  River  and 
Shell  Creek.  Their 
great  chief  Blackbird 
was  the  first  Indian  of 
this  region  whose  name 
is  known  to  white 
men. 

The  Ponca. — Near 
the  mouth  of  the  Nio- 
brara  River  lived  the 
Ponca  tribe,  claiming  the  country  westward  along  that 
river  and  the  streams  flowing  into  it.  These  three  tribes, 
Otoe,  Omaha  and  Ponca  were  closely  related  and  spoke 
languages  much  alike.  Their  traditions  tell  that  they 
came  from  the  southeast  up  the  Missouri  and  had  been  in 
this  region  only  a  few  hundred  years.  All  three  belonged 
to  the  great  Sioux  family  of  Indians  and  were  relatives  of 

226 


MAP  SHOWING  COUNTRY  KNOWN  TO  THE 
(SHADED  AREA) 


NEBRASKA   INDIANS 


227 


the  Sioux  nation  living  northwest  of  them.  The  Otoe 
and  Omaha  tribes  numbered  about  3,000  each  and  the 
Ponca  between  1,000  and  2,000. 

The  Pawnee.— Just  west  of  the  country  claimed  by 
the  Otoe  and  Omaha  tribes  lived  the  Pawnee  nation.  Its 
principal  villages  were  in  the  valleys  of  the  Platte,  Loup 


THE  BUFFALO  HUNT.     (From  Thwaites's  "Early  Western  Travels."     Arthur 
H.  Clark  Co.,  Cleveland,  Ohio.) 

and  Republican  rivers.  It  numbered  in  the  early  years 
about  10,000  people  and  spoke  a  language  entirely  different 
from  that  of  any  other  Nebraska  tribe. 

The  Sioux. —  The  Sioux  nation  roamed  the  whole  coun- 
try north  and  west  of  the  regions  claimed  by  the  Otoe, 
Omaha,  Ponca  and  Pawnee  tribes.  In  what  is  now  Nebraska 
it  numbered  from  10,000  to  20,000  people.  It  had  no  per- 
manent villages,  but  followed  the  buffalo  herds.  About  the 
time  the  first  white  men  came,  the  Sioux  were  driving  the 
Crows  westward  into  the  Rocky  Mountains. 


228 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


The  Cheyenne  and  Arapahoe. —  Cheyenne  and  Arapa- 
hoe  tribes,  numbering  about  3,000  persons,  claimed  the 
upper  valleys  of  the  North  and  South  Plattes  and  hunted 
the  western  plains  in  common  with  the  Sioux.  They 
belonged  to  the  great  Algonquin  family  which  lived  in 
Canada  and  New  England,  and  which  had  been  the  first 
Indians  met  by  the  Pilgrims  when  they  landed  at  Plymouth 
Rock  in  1620.  The  Algonquin  language  is  entirely  different 
from  either  the  Pawnee  or  the  Siouan  language.  How 
this  little  company  of  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes  came  to 
be  so  far  away  from  their  relatives  is  not  known.  Probably 
they  followed  the  buffalo  westward  from  their  older  home. 
Indian  Beliefs,  Art  and  Music. —  These  Indians  believed 
in  good  and  bad  spirits  which  brought  good  and  bad  luck. 
They  thought  that  certain  charms  and  certain  words  drove 
away  the  bad  spirits  and  brought  the  good  spirits.  They 
believed  also  in  a  Great  Spirit,  not  always  very  clear  to 
their  minds,  who  gave  the  Indians  the  earth,  the  rain,  the 
buffalo,  and  other  good  things.  Their  art  was  chiefly  of 
two  kinds,  music  and  painting.  For  music  they  had  drums, 

made  of  hollow  logs  cov- 
ered with  skins,  rattles 
made  of  gourds  or 
bladders  filled  with  peb- 
bles, and  whistles  or 
flutes  made  from  wood 
or  bone.  Their  songs 
and  dances  were  a  large 
part  of  their  religion. 
For  painting  they  had 
colored  clay  and  soft 
rock  and  pencils  made 
Their  paintings  were  made  upon  skins  or  upon 


OMAHA  MISSION  BUILDING  IN  THURSTON 
COUNTY,  BUILT  1856 


of  bone. 

their  own  bodies. 

Indian  Languages  and  Homes. —  Thus  seven  different 
tribes   of   Indians,   Otoe,   Omaha,   Ponca,   Pawnee,    Sioux, 


NEBRASKA   INDIANS 


229 


Cheyenne  and  Arapahoe,  numbering  about  40,000  people 
and  speaking  three  entirely  distinct  languages,  lived  in 
what  is  now  Nebraska,  when  the  white  men  first  came  here. 
The  Sioux,  the  Cheyennes  and  the  Arapahoes  dwelt  in  skin 
tents,  or  tepees,  and  hunted  for  a  living.  The  Omahas, 
Otoes,  Poncas  and  Pawnees  built  large  houses,  called  earth 
lodges,  out  of  sod  and  poles,  but  also  used  tepees.  They 


AN  OMAHA  INDIAN  VILLAGE  IN  1860 

raised  crops  during  certain  seasons  and  hunted  at  other 
times. 

Wars  between  Tribes. —  All  these  Indians,  at  first,  were 
friendly  to  the  white  men,  especially  to  the  French.  There 
was  almost  constant  war  between  the  Indians  who  had 
houses  and  gardens  and  the  wild  hunting  tribes  farther 
west.  How  these  wars  would  have  ended  if  the  white  men 
had  not  come  cannot  be  told,  but  the  wild  Indians  were 
gaining  ground  at  that  time. 


230  A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF  NEBRASKA 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Make  a  map  showing  where  the  Indian  tribes  lived  in  Nebraska  when 

the  white  men  came. 

2.  How  many  languages  were  spoken  in  Nebraska  when  the  white  men  came? 

How  many  now? 

3.  What  do  you  know  of  the  religion  of  the  Nebraska  Indians? 

4.  Did  the  Indians  live  more  by  farming  or  by  hunting?     Why? 

5.  Why  were  these  Indian  tribes  at  war  with  each  other? 


CHAPTER  IV 
MAKING  AND  NAMING  NEBRASKA 

The  Name  of  Nebraska. —  Nebraska  had  no  name  for 
many  years.  To  the  early  fur  traders  it  was  either  the 
"Missouri  country"  or  the  "Platte  country,"  stretching 
westward  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Platte  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  It  was  the  land  of  the  Omaha,  Otoe,  Ponca, 
Pawnee  and  Sioux  Indians,  for  these  were  the  tribes  along 
the  Missouri  and  Platte  rivers  whom  the  fur  traders  met 
and  with  whom  they  traded.  The  most  common  way  of 
describing  this  region  a  hundred  years  ago  was  as  "The 
Council  Bluffs,"  by  which  name  the  fur  traders  meant  the 
shores  of  the  Missouri  above  the  mouth  of  the  Platte.  A 
little  later,  when  the  first  emigrants  to  Oregon  and  pioneers 
to  the  Rocky  Mountains  began  to  cross  this  country,  it 
was  "The  Great  Buffalo  Plains,"  for  the  animal  most  seen 
and  most  sought  for,  by  both  Indians  and  white  men,  gave 
its  name  to  the  country.  It  was  also  called  "The  Great 
American  Desert"  and  is  so  named  on  some  of  the  early 
maps. 

Fifty  years  were  needed  for  the  making  and  naming  of 
Nebraska. 

A  Wild  Region  Called  the  Indian  Country.— From 
October  1,  1804,  to  July  4,  1805,  it  was  part  of  the  territory 
of  Indiana  and  its  capital  the  town  of  Vincennes.  From 
July  4,  1805,  until  December  7,  1812,  it  was  part  of  the 
territory  of  Louisiana  with  its  capital  at  St.  Louis.  It  then 
became  a  part  of  the  territory  of  Missouri  until  the  year 
1821,  when  Missouri  was  made  a  state  and  Nebraska  was 
cut  off  and  left  outside  the  control  of  any  state  or  territorial 
government.  In  this  wild  region,  under  no  government,  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  was  made  by  fur  traders  who  sold 

231 


232  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

whisky  to  the  Indians,  cheated  them,  and  killed  their  game. 
Quarrels  and  wars  became  frequent.  To  end  these  troubles, 
all  the  land  west  of  the  Missouri  River  then  belonging  to 
the  United  States  and  outside  of  the  states  of  Missouri  and 
Louisiana  and  the  territory  of  Arkansas  was,  on  June  30, 
1834,  called  "The  Indian  Country,"  and  placed  under 
strict  laws.  All  white  men  were  forbidden  to  hunt,  trap, 
or  settle  in  the  Indian  country  without  special  permission 
from  the  government.  It  was  made  a  crime  to  take  liquor 
there.  The  Indian  Superintendent  at  St.  Louis  was  made 
the  governor  over  the  Indian  country. 

Nebraska  and  Oregon. —  In  these  early  days  the  United 
States  claimed  all  of  the  Oregon  country  westward  across 
the  Rocky  Mountains  from  Nebraska  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
England  claimed  it,  too,  as  did  also  Spain  and  Russia.  The 
English  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  in  order  to  get  the  Indian 
fur  trade,  had  built  forts  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  upon 
the  Pacific  coast.  These  English  forts  and  fur  traders 
tried  to  keep  out  American  settlers.  This  made  danger  of 
war  between  England  and  the  United  States.  The  United 
States  had  only  a  very  few  pioneer  settlers  in  Oregon.  Be- 
tween these  and  the  Mississippi  valley  lay  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains and  the  great  Indian  country  where  no  white  people 
lived.  To  protect  and  help  the  Americans  who  wanted 
to  make  Oregon  their  home,  a  plan  was  made  at  Washing- 
ton to  open  the  Indian  country  west  of  the  Missouri  and  to 
bring  in  settlers  who  should  raise  crops  to  feed  the  soldiers 
and  the  emigrants  on  their  way  to  Oregon.  To  prepare 
the  way,  Lieutenant  John  C.  Fremont  was  sent  in  1842 
by  the  United  States  to  explore  the  plains  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  the  name  "Nebraska" 
appears.  Fremont's  account  speaks  of  the  "Nebraska 
River."  The  secretary  of  war,  William  Wilkins,  in  his 
report  of  November  30,  1844,  says,  "The  Platte  or  Nebras- 
ka River  being  the  central  stream  would  very  properly 
furnish  a  name  to  the  territory.  Troops  and  supplies  from 


MAKING  AND  NAMING  NEBRASKA 


233 


the  projected  Nebraska  territory  would  be  able  to  contend 
for  Oregon  with  any  force  coming  from  the  sea."  ' '  Nebrath- 
ka,"  meaning  "flat  water,"  was  the  Otoe  Indian  name  for 
the  Platte. 

The  First  Nebraska  Bill.—  The  first  bill  to  make  a  land 
called  Nebraska  was  introduced  in  Congress  on  December 
17,  1844.  This  first  Nebraska  in- 
cluded the  states  of  Kansas, 
Nebraska,  South  Dakota,  North 
Dakota  and  parts  of  Colorado, 
Wyoming  and  Montana.  For  the 
next  ten  years  there  was  a  great 
struggle  in  Congress  over  the  mak- 
ing of  Nebraska  Territory.  Stephen 
•A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  was  the 
champion  of  the  Nebraska  idea. 
Many  obstacles  were  in  the  way. 

Obstacles  to  Nebraska  Terri- 
tory: Indians,  Railroad  Question, 
Slavery. —  The  Indian  question  was 
one.  Indian  tribes  east  of  the  Miss- 
issippi were  being  moved  west  in 
order  to  make  room  for  the  white 

people.  To  open  Nebraska  territory  for  white  settlement 
would  crowd  the  Indians  south.  The  southern  people  did 
not  wish  so  many  Indians  on  their  frontier. 

There  was  the  Pacific  railroad  question.  The  South 
wished  a  railroad  to  be  built  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  through 
the  southern  country,  while  the  North  wished  it  to  be  built 
by  way  of  the  Platte  valley  in  the  Nebraska  country.  Both 
wished  to  get  the  Indians  out  of  the  way.  The  making  of 
Nebraska  would  aid  the  northern  project,  therefore  the 
South  opposed  it. 

There  was  the  slavery  question.  In  the  year  1820,  a 
fierce  dispute  had  risen  between  the  North  and  the  South 
over  whether  Missouri  should  be  admitted  as  a  slave  state 


STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS 


234  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

or  a  free  state.  It  was  at  last  agreed  that  Missouri  might 
come  in  as  a  slave  state,  but  that  the  rest  of  the  country 
west  and  north  of  Missouri  should  be  forever  free.  This 
was  called  the  ' '  Missouri  Compromise."  Under  it  Nebraska 
would  have  come  in  free.  Now  the  South  feared  making 
more  free  states.  That  was  another  reason  why  it  opposed 
the  making  of  Nebraska. 

The  Nebraska-Kansas  Bill. — This  first  Nebraska  bill 
failed  to  pass.  In  1848,  Senator  Douglas  introduced  a 
second  bill.  This  also  failed.  In  1853  a  third  bill  was 
defeated.  In  1854  a  fourth  Nebraska  bill  came  up  in 
Congress.  It  was  now  called  the  " Nebraska-Kansas  Bill" 
and  made  two  new  territories  out  of  the  Indian  country. 
It  also  provided  that  the  settlers  in  each  territory  should 
say  by  their  votes  whether  it  should  be  slave  or  free.  This 
made  a  fierce  fight  over  the  Nebraska-Kansas  bill.  The 
South  said  that  Nebraska  and  Kansas  belonged  to  the  whole 
country,  that  all  people  should  be  allowed  to  go  there  and 
take  their  property  with  them  and  that  the  settler  from  the 
South  had  the  same  right  to  take  his  slaves  there,  that  the 
settler  from  the  North  had  to  take  his  horses  and  cattle. 
The  North  said  that  Nebraska  and  Kansas  had  been  made 
free  by  the  Missouri  Compromise,  that  slavery  was  wrong 
and  that  there  should  be  no  more  slave  territory,  but  that 
both  South  and  North  should  keep  their  agreement  made 
in  1820  and  make  the  West  a  home  for  free  men  and  women 
and  not  for  slaves.  All  the  country  was  ablaze  with  excite- 
ment over  Nebraska  and  Kansas. 

The  South  and  the  North  Quarrel  over  Nebraska. —  The 
old  parties  —  Whig  and  Democratic  —  were  broken  up 
over  this  question.  The  churches  were  broken  into  northern 
and  southern  factions.  For  months  nothing  was  talked  of 
but  the  Nebraska-Kansas  bill.  Feeling  grew  more  and  more 
bitter  and  it  began  to  appear  that  there  might  be  war  be- 
tween the  South  and  the  North.  Finally,  after  an  all- 
night's  contest  in  Congress  the  Douglas  bill,  creating  the 


o 

Q 


235 


236  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

two  new  territories  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  was  passed 
and  signed  by  President  Pierce  on  May  30,  1854. 

Thus  was  Nebraska  named  and  made  into  a  territory. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  How  did  the  Nebraska  region  get  its  different  names? 

2.  Would  the  fur  traders  gain  more  in  the  long  run  by  trading  liquor  to  the 

Indians?     Why? 

3.  How  many  bills  in  Congress  for  making  and  naming  Nebraska  and  what 

obstacles  did  they  meet? 

4.  What  had  Nebraska  to  do  with  bringing  on  the  war  between  the  South 

and  the  North? 

5.  Why  were  the  churches  and  political  parties  broken  up  over  the  Nebraska 

question? 


CHAPTER  V 
NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY 

Nebraska  Territory  Five  Times  as  Large  as  Nebraska 
State. —  Nebraska  Territory,  in  1854,  was  five  times  as 
large  as  the  state  of  Nebraska  is  now.  All  the  way  from 
Kansas  to  Canada,  from  the  top  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
to  Minnesota  and  Iowa  was  Nebraska.  Very  few  white 


MAP  OF  NEBRASKA  TERRITORY,  1854.     (Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 


people  then  lived  in  the  land.  Fur  traders  had  built  log 
cabins  in  a  few  places  along  the  rivers.  Every  summer 
thousands  of  emigrants  to  Oregon  and  California  traveled 
the  great  Oregon  Trail  across  the  territory.  At  Fort 
Kearney  and  Fort  Laramie  on  the  Oregon  Trail  were 

237 


238 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


companies  of  soldiers.  At  Bellevue  was  a  little  village  of 
fur  traders  and  missionaries.  All  the  rest  of  Nebraska  was 
wild  plains  and  mountains,  the  home  of  Indians,  buffalo 
and  beaver. 

The  First  Settlers. —  Soon  after  Nebraska  was  named 
and  made,  people  began  to  settle  there.  Most  of  the  first 
settlers  came  from  Iowa.  Some  came  from  Missouri, 
Illinois,  Michigan,  Ohio,  New  York,  Massachusetts.  All 
they  had  to  do  was  to  cross  the  river  and  choose  the  most 
beautiful  land  for  their  homes.  In  March,  1854,  the  Omaha 
and  Otoe  Indians  ceded  to  the  United  States  their  country 
along  the  Missouri  River.  No  surveys  had  been  made. 
All  the  land  was  open  to  the  first  comers.  Most  of  those 
who  came  from  Iowa  picked  out  the  land  that  suited  them, 
built  log  cabins  to  hold  it  and  went  back  to  Iowa  to  make 
their  living. 

The  First  Governor,  Francis  Burt. —  Francis  Burt,  Demo- 
crat, of  South  Carolina  was  the  first  governor  of  Nebraska. 

He  and  the  other  first  officers  of 

^gOM^  Nebraska  were  appointed  by  Pres- 

ident Franklin  Pierce  and  were  paid 
!•«••»  JKW  ky  the  United  States.     He  was  a 

slender,  handsome  man  who  loved 
books  and  was  not  used  to  frontier 
life. 

The  long  journey  from  his  home, 
part  of  it  by  stage  and  steamboat, 
brought  him  worn  out  to  Nebraska 
City.  Nebraska  City  had  then  one 
house  and  one  wagon.  In  the 

wagon  Governor  Burt  was  driven  to  Bellevue,  where  he 
arrived  October  7,  1854.  He  grew  worse  and  died  on 
October  18th.  His  body  was  taken  back  to  the  old  home 
in  South  Carolina.  There  was  great  sorrow  in  the  little 
village  of  Bellevue  over  the  death  of  the  first  governor,  for 
all  who  met  him  learned  to  love  him. 


Gov.  FRANCIS  BURT 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY 


239 


NEBRASKA  FERRY  ACROSS  ELKHORN  RIVER,  1854 

Acting  Governor  Cuming. —  The  secretary  of  state, 
Thos.  B.  Cuming  of  Michigan,  became  acting  governor. 
He  was  very  different  in  mind  and 
person  from  Governor  Burt.  His 
eyes  were  dark,  his  hair  straight 
and  black,  his  mind  bold  and 
shrewd. 

Old  Bellevue. —  Belle vue  was 
the  oldest  town  in  Nebraska,  for 
Fort  Atkinson  had  been  abandoned. 
It  was  in  fact  the  only  town.  Here 
was  the  old  fur  trading  post.  Here 
the  Indian  agent  having  charge  of 
the  Nebraska  Indians  lived.  Here 

the  first  Christian  missionaries  came  and  built  the  only 
mission  house  then  in  Nebraska.  It  was  expected  that 
Bellevue  would  be  the  capital  of  Nebraska. 


THOMAS  B.  CUMINC 


240 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


New  Omaha. — •  Eight  miles  above  Bellevue,  in  the  woods 
fronting  the  Missouri  river,  men  from  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa, 
had  started  a  town  which  they  named  Omaha.  There  they 

built  a  two-story  brick 
building  which  they  of- 
fered to  give  for  a  Cap- 
itol. Acting -governor 
Cuming  called  the  first 
legislature  to  meet  there 
on  January  16,  1855. 
Very  bitter  were  the 
quarrels  which  followed 
this  act.  The  first  cen- 
sus of  white  settlers 

FIRST  TERRITORIAL  CAPITAL,  1855  taken    bY    order   of   the 

acting-governor  showed 

2,732  people.  It  was  claimed  that  many  persons  counted 
did  not  live  in  Nebraska  at  all,  and  that  some  came  over  from 
Iowa,  voted  and  went  back  and  o)id  not  settle  in  Nebraska. 

The  First  Legislature. —  The  first  Nebraska  legislature 
was  the  only  part  of  the  government  elected  by  the  settlers. 
It  had  a  council  of  thirteen  members  and  a  house  of  repre- 
sentatives of  twenty-six  members.  Twenty-one  members 
came  from  the  North  Platte  and  eighteen  from  the  South 
Platte.  By  the  count  of  the  first  census  there  were  nearly 
twice  as  many  settlers  in  the  South  Platte  region  as  in  the 
North  Platte. 

The  Dividing  Platte. —  The  Platte  River  cut  the  scattered 
settlements  of  early  Nebraska  sharply  into  two  parts.  The 
people  were  too  poor  to  build  bridges,  the  river  was  too  wide 
and  shallow  for  ferries  and  its  sandy  bottom  was  too  soft 
to  make  good  fords.  The  fight  between  the  North  and 
South  sections  began  at  the  first  session  of  the  legislature 
and  continued  through  the  years. 

Iowa  Law  Becomes  Nebraska  Law. —  There  was  much 
for  the  first  legislature  to  do.  First  there  was  a  contest 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY 


241 


for  permanent  location  of  the  capital.  In  this  Omaha  won. 
A  body  of  laws  was  needed  to  govern  the  territory.  The 
legislature  met  this  need  by  taking  a  book  of  Iowa  laws  and 
enacting  them  for  Nebraska.  In  this  way  most  of  the  Iowa 
law  was  made  Nebraska  law.  The  eastern  end  of  the 
country  between  the  Niobrara  River  and  Kansas  was  divided 
into  counties  by  the  governor  and  the  legislature.  All 
the  rest  of  the  great  territory  was  an  undivided  wilderness. 
Laws  were  passed  for  making  roads  and  ferries.  Public 
roads  were  made  sixty-six  feet  wide  and  continue  to  be  so 
at  this  day.  A  law  was  passed  prohibiting  any  one  from 
selling  or  giving  away  liquor.  Whisky  had  made  much 
trouble  with  the  Indians  in  Nebraska  while  it  was  still  the 
Indian  country  and  in  1834,  the  United  States  had  for- 
bidden its  sale  here. 

Land  and  Claim  Clubs. —  The  first  settlers  of  Nebraska 
were  not  satisfied  with  the  land  laws.  The  United  States 
law  allowed  a  man  to  take  160  acres  of  land  and  after 
living  on  it  for  six  months  to  buy  it  by  paying  to  the  United 
States  $1.25  per  acre.  The  settlers  said  that  the  first 
pioneers  should  have  320  instead  of  160  acres.  In  order  to 
hold  this  land  "  Claim 
Clubs"  were  organized. 
Each  man  in  a  claim 
club  promised  to  defend 
every  other  member  in 
holding  his  320  acres. 
When  the  later  settlers 
began  to  come  they 
were  warned  that  they 
would  be  driven  off  by 
force  if  they  tried  to  FIRST  CLAIM  CABIN  IN  NEBRASKA 

settle  on  the  land  held 

by  members  of  the  claim  clubs.  The  first  legislature  passed 
a  law  giving  each  member  of  a  claim  club  320  acres.  This 
was  contrary  to  United  States  law  and  was  therefore  illegal. 


242 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


For  several  years  there  were  quarrels  and  wars  between  the 

claim  clubs  and  the  later  settlers.     In  the  end  the  claim 

clubs  disbanded. 

Governor    Izard    Arrives. —  The    second    governor    of 

Nebraska,  Mark  W.  Izard,  Democrat,  of  Arkansas  arrived 

_-_^_^___^_^^_____    at  Omaha  February  20,  1855, 

and  acting-governor  Cuming 
became  again  secretary  of 
state. 

The  Council  with  the  Paw- 
nees.—  In  the  spring  of  1855, 
Indians  stole  cattle  from  the 
settlers  on  the  Elkhorn  River 
near  Fremont.  Governor  Izard 
sent  John  M.  Thayer  and  O. 
D.  Richardson  to  hold  a  coun- 
cil with  the  Pawnee  tribe. 
With  them  went  Rev.  Samuel 
Allis  who  had  been  missionary 
to  the  Pawnees  for  many  years 
and  spoke  their  language.  A 
council  was  held  with  Petale- 
sharu,  the  great  chief  of  the 
Pawnees,  at  his  village  on  the 
high  bluff  four  miles  southeast 
of  Fremont.  The  Pawnees 
said  that  the  Poncas  killed 
the  cattle.  They  promised, 
however,  to  keep  the  peace. 
This  was  the  first  council 
held  by  the  territory  with 
Nebraska  Indians.  Fiftyyears 
afterward,  a  monument  was 

placed  on  the  site  of  this  council  and  General  John  M. 

Thayer,  standing  for  the  second  time  on  this  bluff,  made 

the  speech  of  dedication. 


PETALESHARU — CHIEF  OF  THE 
PAWNEE  NATION 


NEBRASKA   AS   A   TERRITORY  243 

The  First  General  —  John  M.  Thayer.—  Soon  after  the 
council  with  the  Pawnees,  John  M.  Thayer  was  made 
general  of  the  Nebraska  militia  composed  of  settlers  who 
were  armed  to  protect  the  frontier.  The  militia  were  first 
called  out  in  July,  1855,  when  Sioux  Indians  made  a  raid 
into  the  Elkhorn  valley.  The  soldiers  made  a  camp  on  the 
river.  They  saw  no  Indians  but  caught  many  catfish. 
This  is  sometimes,  in  jest,  called  the  "Catfish  War." 

The  Rival  Cities  —  Omaha  and  Nebraska  City. —  Dur- 
ing the  year  1855  settlers  came  slowly  into  the  new  territory. 
The  census  in  October  of  that  year  found  4,494,  of  whom 
1,549  were  in  the  North  Platte  section,  2,945  in  the  South 
Platte  section.  Nebraska  City  had  become  the  largest 
town  in  the  territory,  the  leader  of  the  South  Platte  section 
and  the  chief  rival  of  Omaha. 

The  First  Schools. —  The  first  schools  in  this  region  were 
held  in  very  early  days.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe 
there  were  children  of  the  garrison  at  old  Fort  Atkinson  as 
far  back  as  1820  and  school  for  them.  The  next  schools 
were  for  the  Indian  and  half-breed  children.  Such  schools 
were  taught  at  Bellevue  by  the  first  missionaries,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Merrill,  in  1833  for  the  Otoes,  and  soon  after  for  the 
Pawnees  by  Rev.  Samuel  Allis  and  Rev.  John  Dunbar. 
The  Mormon  schools  came  next.  Thousands  of  Mormons 
wintered  in  log  cabins  and  sod  houses  where  Florence  now 
is  and  also  near  Bellevue  in  1846-47  while  on  then*  way 
across  the  plains  to  Utah.  Schools  for  their  children  were 
held  during  the  winter. 

Free  schools  came  to  Nebraska  with  her  first  govern- 
ment. The  terms  were  short  and  the  schoolhouses  made  of 
rough  logs,  but  wherever  there  were  children  schools  were 
started.  Sometimes  the  first  school  was  taught  in  a  log 
cabin  home  by  the  mother,  the  children  sitting  on  benches 
split  out  of  trees.  One  of  the  acts  of  the  first  territorial 
legislature,  dated  March  10,  1855,  was  to  provide  free 
common  schools.  Each  school  district  could  vote  what 


244  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

studies  should  be  taught  in  the  district.  Teachers  were 
very  hard  to  get.  The  district  school  board  examined 
those  wishing  to  teach  and  the  subjects  in  which  they  must 
pass  examination  were  reading,  writing,  spelling,  arithmetic, 
grammar,  geography  and  United  States  history.  These 
examinations  were  oral. 


MORMONS  SETTING  OUT  FROM  FLORENCE,  NEBRASKA,  TO  CROSS  THE  PLAINS 

The  School  Boards  and  Teachers. —  Frontier  school 
boards  were  often  good  hunters  and  trappers,  having  little 
knowledge  of  books,  and  many  amusing  stories  are  told  of 
the  examinations  given  by  them.  Sometimes  the  school 
board  and  teacher  got  into  an  argument  over  what  was  the 
right  answer  to  a  question.  The  law  provided  for  a  county 
superintendent,  but  the  salary  allowed  was  so  small  that 
few  cared  for  the  office  and  in  some  counties  there  was  none. 
So  these  first  Nebraska  schools  were  run  very  much  as  each 
neighborhood  wished.  There  was  so  little  money  to  pay 
the  teacher,  that  she  often  " boarded  round"  the  district, 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY 


245 


a  week  at  each  house.  The  schoolhouses  were  rough,  the 
books  few  and  the  term  only  a  few  weeks  in  the  winter. 
All  the  children  were  eager  to  go.  The  grown-up  boys  and 
girls  recited  and  studied  in  the  same  room  with  the  little 
ones  and  made  one  big  family  in  their  studies,  in  their 
outdoor  play,  and  at  noon  when  they  ate  their  lunches 
together  seated  about  their  home-made  desks. 

The  First  Churches.—  In  the  social  life  and  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  public  sentiment  of  early  Nebraska,  religion  had 
its  part.  Missionaries  taught  the  first  schools  and  pioneer 


FIRST  COUNTY  MAP  OF  NEBRASKA,  1854. 

Turner.) 


(Drawing  by  Miss  Martha 


preachers  were  among  the  earliest  settlers  in  the  territory. 
Nearly  all  of  the  churches  in  Nebraska  of  to-day  trace  their 
beginnings  here  to  little  groups  of  settlers  inspired  by  a 
common  faith  who  gathered  in  the  cabins  and  sod-houses 
to  hold  their  first  meetings  and  sometimes  in  summer  in 
groves  for  the  larger  assemblies.  There  was  great  warmth 
of  good  feeling  in  the  pioneer  churches  as  in  other  pioneer 
associations.  The  members  were  nearly  equal  in  riches  and 
in  poverty  and  rarely  did  any  misfortune  come  to  one  which 
was  not  shared  by  all.  The  pioneer  preachers  were  a 
peculiar  class,  fervent  and  untiring  in  spirit,  always  poor 


246  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

and  always  welcome  in  every  settlement  where  they  brought 
messages  of  good  will  and  the  friendly  news  from  settlements 
at  a  distance.  To  found  schools,  colleges,  and  libraries 
was  the  dream  of  many  of  these  early  missionaries.  In 
some  cases  the  dream  was  realized.  Many  Nebraska  towns 
and  country  neighborhoods  to-day  bear  the  impress  in  their 
social  ideals  of  these  early  preachers  and  the  churches  and 
the  schools  which  they  founded.  Bellevue,  Brownville, 
Fremont  and  Fontanelle  are  examples. 

1856  was  a  year  of  promise  to  Nebraska  settlers.  Timely 
rains  had  fallen.  The  few  little  fields  of  wheat  and  corn 
had  borne  good  crops.  Gardens  of  plenty  smiled  by  the 
side  of  log  cabins.  Elk,  deer,  antelope,  grouse  and  wild 
turkeys  were  everywhere.  Buffalo  were  abundant  just 
west  of  the  settlements.  The  Sioux  had  been  badly  beaten 
at  Ash  Hollow  by  General  Harney  and  desired  peace. 
Fifty  thousand  dollars  had  been  voted  by  Congress  to  build 
a  new  capitol  at  Omaha  and  fifty  thousand  more  to  make 
a  good  road  from  Omaha  to  Fort  Kearney.  The  joy  of 
living  in  a  new  country  and  faith  in  its  bright  future  were 
in  every  heart. 

The  Hard  Winter. —  Then  came  the  severe  winter  of 
1856-57.  It  began  with  a  great  storm  on  the  first  of 
December  and  grew  fiercer  with  each  month.  The  ravines 
were  filled  with  snow.  Elk  and  deer  perished.  Roads  were 
blocked.  Hardly  could  the  pioneers  venture  from  their 
cabins  to  chop  the  wood  which  kept  their  families  from 
freezing.  This  was  always  known  among  the  early  settlers 
as  the ''Hard  Winter." 

Dreams  of  the  Pioneers. —  Most  of  the  pioneers  were 
poor  in  pocket  but  they  were  rich  in  hope.  They  saw  how 
black  and  fertile  was  the  soil,  how  thick  and  tall  the  grass 
in  the  valleys,  how  smooth  and  level  lay  the  land  ready  for 
the  plow.  Much  they  thought  and  dreamed  and  foretold 
about  this  beautiful  land  in  which  they  had  come  to  live. 
There  were  dreams  of  the  great  Pacific  railroad,  of  mills 


•2 


248 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


and  factories  by  the  riversides,  of  farms  and  orchards  and 
homes  and  schools  where  then  waved  only  prairie  grass. 

Money  was  what  was  needed,  everybody  said.  They 
thought  if  only  they  had  money  to  start  things,  to  hire  men, 
to  buy  goods,  to  let  the  world  know  how  good  the  country 
was,  people  would  come  rushing  in,  the  lands  would  be 
settled,  towns  be  quickly  built  and  all  would  easily  get  rich 
together.  There  were  such  splendid  sites  for  towns  and 
cities,  at  the  ferry  crossings  upon  the  Missouri,  where  creeks 
and  rivers  came  together  and  on  the  beautiful  slopes  where 
the  woodland  and  prairie  met.  Many  of  these  were  staked 
off  into  town  lots.  Each  one's  dream  was  a  little  more 
certain  to  him  than  his  neighbor's  dream. 

Money  was  needed.  There  was  very  little  of  it  in 
Nebraska  for  the  settlers  as  yet  raised  almost  nothing  to 
sell.  Each  man  grew  a  little  patch  of  garden  and  grain, 
killed  a  little  game  and  swapped  the  little  surplus  with  his 
neighbors. 

How  to  Make  Money. —  When  the  second  legislature 
met  in  1856,  some  of  the  men  who  wished  to  make  things 
go  faster  said:  "Pass  a  law  that  will  let  us  join  together 
in  a  company  and  start  a  bank.  Let  the  bank  issue  bank 

notes.  Everyone  can  use  these 
notes  for  money  and  we  will  grow 
rich  together."  So  the  legislature 
made  such  a  law.  Only  a  few 
brave  men,  among  them  J.  Sterling 
Morton  and  Dr.  George  L.  Miller, 
opposed  it. 

The  Good  Times. —  Five  men 
could  then  start  a  bank.     They 

NEBRASKA  WILDCAT  CUBRENCY        dld  nOt  Deed  tO  PUt  m  al^  mOn6y 

at  the  beginning.     Each  one 

promised  to  pay  money  at  a  certain  future  time.  Then 
the  bank  opened.  Thousands  of  dollars  of  bright  beau- 
tiful bank  notes  were  printed  by  each  bank  and  loaned 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY  249 

to  those  who  wished  to  borrow.  This  was  the  money 
which  the  banks  promised  to  make.  Everyone  soon  had 
plenty  of  this  kind  of  money.  Everybody  was  willing  to 
buy.  Town  lots  rose  rapidly  in  price.  Business  was 
booming.  Population  doubled,  the  census  of  that  year 
showed  10,716  people.  Everyone  seemed  to  be  getting 
rich.  More  banks  were  started  in  order  to  make  more 
money.  Towns  of  only  two  or  three  log  cabins  had  a 
bank.  In  one  year  over  $400,000  of  these  bank  notes 
were  issued  in  Nebraska.  Since  the  bank  money  was  so 
plentiful  and  so  easy  to  get,  everyone  freely  bought  with 
it,  and  those  who  sold  things  for  a  high  price  at  once  sought 
to  buy  other  things.  So  the  market  was  always  lively. 

The  Great  Panic. —  These  good  times  lasted  a  little 
over  a  year.  Then  came  the  great  panic  of  1857.  All 
over  the  West  banks  broke  and  closed  their  doors.  People 
who  had  beautiful,  bright  bank  notes  could  buy  nothing 
with  them.  People  who  thought  they  were  rich,  found 
that  they  had  nothing.  Those  in  debt,  found  that  they 
could  not  pay  their  debts,  for  ho  one  would  take  the  bank 
notes.  There  was  great  distress  and  poverty  and  suffering 
for  a  number  of  years. 

The  Wild  Cat  Days. —  Then  the  people  ceased  to  dream 
of  getting  rich  in  a  few  months  and  began  to  plow  up  their 
town  sites,  plant  crops,  and  live  in  a  quiet  and  modest  way 
according  to  their  means.  The  years  1856  and  1857  are 
called  to  this  time,  the  "Wild  Cat  Days"  of  Nebraska 
because  the  bank  notes  used  were  known  as  wild  cat  money. 

The  Effort  to  Move  the  Capital  to  Salt  Creek.—  While 
the  wild  cat  bank  note  fever  was  high,  the  third  Nebraska 
legislature  met  on  January  5,  1857.  It  is  noted  for  two 
acts.  It  passed  a  bill  to  remove  the  capital  from  Omaha 
to  Douglas  in  Lancaster  county  by  a  vote  of  nine  to  four 
in  the  council,  and  twenty-three  to  twelve  in  the  house. 
Douglas  was  a  " paper  town,"  somewhere  near  Salt  Creek, 
no  one  knew  just  where,  as  no  one  lived  there.  As  Governor 


250 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


Izard  vetoed  the  bill,  Douglas  never  started  to  grow  and 
no  one  knows  to  this  day  where  the  capital  would  be  if  it 
had  been  moved  from  Omaha  in  1857.  The  legislature  of 
1857  also  repealed  the  criminal  code,  that  part  of  the  law 
which  provides  for  punishment  of  those  who  commit  crimes. 
It  was  said  this  was  done  to  keep  a  certain  man,  a  murderer, 


SECOND  TERRITORIAL  CAPITOL,  AFTERWARD  OMAHA  HIGH  SCHOOL.     (From 
photograph  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 

from  being  punished.     The  law  was  restored  at  the  next 
session. 

The  War  between  North  and  South  Platte.—  The  fourth 
legislature  which  met  in  Omaha,  December  8,  1857,  is 
known  as  that  of  the  " Florence  Secession."  The  war 
between  the  North  Platte  and  South  Platte  sections  had 
become  fierce  and  bitter.  There  were  twice  as  many 
settlers  in  the  South  Platte  country  as  in  the  North.  A 
majority  of  both  houses  of  the  legislature  were  from  the 
South  Platte.  The  North  Platte  by  Governor  Izard's 
veto  had  been  able  to  hold  the  capital  at  Omaha.  The 
South  Platte  was  determined  to  take  it  across  the  river. 
A  bill  for  that  purpose  was  introduced.  A  fist  fight  on  the 
floor  followed  between  members  from  Omaha  and  members 
from  the  South  Platte.  The  next  day,  January  8,  1858,  a 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY 


251 


majority  of  both  house  and  council  adjourned  to  the  town 
of  Florence  six  miles  above  Omaha.  There  they  met  and 
passed  laws,  while  the  other  members  met  in  Omaha. 
Among  the  acts  passed  at  Florence  was  one  providing  for 
the  removal  of  the  capital  to  Neapolis.  This  was  another 
paper  town  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Platte,  near  where 
Cedar  Bluffs,  Saunders  County,  is  now  located. 

Governor  Richardson  Comes  to  Nebraska.—  Nebraska's 
third  governor,  William  A.  Richardson,  Democrat,  of  Illi- 
nois, arrived  at  Omaha  January 
12,  1858,  in  the  midst  of  the  Flor- 
ence secession.  He  refused  to  re- 
cognize the  members  at  Florence 
or  to  sign  the  laws  passed  there, 
because  that  was  not  the  capital. 
So  both  the  Florence  and  the  Oma- 
ha legislatures  went  home,  at  the 
end  of  forty  days,  with  nothing 
done.  Soon  after  this  Secretary 
of  State  Cuming  died  and  J. 
Sterling  Morton,  leader  of  the 
South  Platte  section,  was  appointed  by  President  Buchanan 
to  fill  the  place. 

The  Early  Colonies. —  In  these  territorial  days,  settle- 
ment by  colonies  began.  These  were  groups  of  people  with 
some  common  bond,  sometimes  that  of  the  same  neighbor- 
hood in  an  older  state,  sometimes  that  of  a  common  language 
or  religion.  Usually  the  first  comers  in  these  colonies  wrote 
back  for  others  and  the  colony  spread,  so  that  the  county 
where  they  settled  became  known  as  the  home  of  a  certain 
class  of  people.  In  this  way  Germans  settled  in  Hall, 
Cuming  and  Otoe  counties  in  1857,  both  French  and  Ger- 
mans in  Richardson  County,  and  an  Irish  colony  in  Dakota 
County  in  1856. 

The  Republican  Party. —  In  the  year  1858,  party  politics 
appeared  in  Nebraska.  At  first  all  the  settlers  were  Demo- 


Gov.  WM.  A.  RICHARDSON 


252 

crats  because  they  came  from  states  where  that  party  was 
strong.  When  the  Nebraska-Kansas  bill  was  passed  in 
1854,  the  new  Republican  party  was  born.  But  although 
the  Nebraska-Kansas  bill  was  the  cause  of  the  birth  of 
the  Republican  party  there  were  at  first  no  Republicans  in 
Nebraska.  The  Democratic  party  in  the  North  and  the  South 
was  dividing  into  two  camps  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  The 
southern  camp  said,  "  A  man  has  the  right  to  take  and  hold 
his  slaves  anywhere  in  the  Union."  The  northern  camp 
said,  "Let  the  people  in  each  state  decide  whether  that 
state  shall  have  slaves  or  not."  The  Republican  party  said, 
"No  more  slave  territory  anywhere." 

Slavery  and  the  Political  Parties. —  Most  of  the  people 
in  Nebraska  were  opposed  to  slavery.  As  the  Democratic 
party  was  divided  on  the  question  there  was  a  call  to 
organize  the  Republican  party,  and  on  January  18,  1858, 
the  first  meeting  for  that  purpose  was  held  in  Omaha. 
Only  a  few  were  present.  They  were  called  "Black  Repub- 
licans" and  not  looked  upon  as  quite  respectable.  In  some 
counties  they  combined  with  Democrats  and  called  their 
ticket  "people's  ticket"  to  avoid  using  the  unpopular  name 
"Republican." 

Prohibition  Repealed. —  The  fifth  session  of  the  legis- 
lature was  called  by  Governor  Richardson  to  meet  on 
September  21,  1858.  Its  most  noted  act  was  to  repeal 
the  prohibition  law  and  in  its  stead  provide  a  license  for  the 
sale  of  liquor.  Republicans  were  the  leaders  in  making 
this  change. 

The  First  Surplus  Crop  and  First  Territorial  Fair.—  1859 
was  an  eventful  year  in  Nebraska  history,  for  in  that  year  the 
first  corn  was  shipped  to  market.  Through  all  the  season, 
steamboats  were  carrying  the  golden  grain  from  the  towns 
along  the  Missouri  River,  where  it  had  been  hauled  in 
wagons  by  the  settlers.  From  that  year  there  was  no 
longer  doubt  that  Nebraska  was  a  farming  country.  In 
September  of  that  year,  the  settlers'  victory  over  the 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY 


253 


great  American  desert  was  celebrated  at  Nebraska  City 
by  the  first  territorial  fair.  Robert  W.  Furnas  was  presi- 
dent. J.  Sterling  Morton,  the  orator  of  the  occasion,  made 
an  historic  speech  recounting  the  hardships  which  the 
settlers  had  endured  and  foretelling  Nebraska's  great  future. 

Gold  in  Nebraska. —  Gold  was  found  in  Nebraska,  in 
1859,  at  the  foot  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  the  sands  of 
the  streams,  at  the  headwaters  of  the  South  Platte.  Soon 
there  was  a  rush  of  thousands  across  the  plains  eager  to 
dig  for  this  gold  in  Nebraska  sands.  The  new  gold  mines 
were  in  sight  of  Pike's  Peak  and  the  gold  seekers  painted 
"Pike's  Peak  or  Bust "  on  the  canvas  covers  of  their  wagons. 

The  Steam  Wagon  Road. —  Nebraska  City  laid  out  a 
new  short  road  to  the  gold  mines,  crossing  the  prairies  along 
the  Blue  rivers.  It  was  sometimes  called  "The  Steam  Wa- 
gon Road"  because  a  steam  wagon,  which  soon  broke  down, 
was  made  to  travel  it.  This  new  road  was  very  popular 
and  helped  to  develop  Nebraska  City  and  the  South  Platte 
very  much.  The  new  territory  of  Colorado  was  organized 
in  1861,  taking  away  from  Nebraska  her  gold  mines  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountains,  but  never,  either  then  or  since,  has 
so  much  wealth  been  dug  from  the 
Rocky  Mountains  as  has  been  pro- 
duced from  the  prairies  of  our  state. 

Governor  Black. —  The  fourth 
governor  of  the  territory,  Samuel 
W.  Black,  Democrat,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania arrived  at  Omaha,  May  2, 
1859.  The  feud  between  the  North 
and  South  Platte  regions  had  now 
become  so  bitter,  the  South  Platte 
people  resolved  that  they  would 
no  longer  live  in  Nebraska. 

The  South  Platte  Tries  to  Secede.—  They  determined 
to  secede  and  join  Kansas,  taking  the  entire  South  Platte 
country  with  them.  To  this  end  they  sent  delegates  to 


Gov.  SAMUEL  W.  BLACK 


254 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


Kansas  and  to  Washington  asking  Congress  to  separate  the 
South  Platte  region  from  Nebraska  and  to  join  it  to  Kansas. 
This  attempt  failed,  but  the  quarrel  between  the  North 
and  South  Platte  regions  went  on. 

The  Pawnee  War  of  1859. —  What  is  known  as  the 
Pawnee  war  occurred  in  1859.  For  a  great  many  years,  a 
large  Pawnee  village  was  upon  the  bluff  above  the  Platte 
where  General  Thayer  held  the  first  Indian  council  in  1855. 
White  settlers  were  coming  in,  and  the  Indians  had  agreed 
to  give  up  their  land  there  and  move  to  the  valley  of  the 
Loup.  In  July,  they  gathered  their  ponies,  packed  their 
goods  upon  them,  and  started  up  the  valley  of  the  Elkhorn, 
under  their  great  chief  Petalesharu.  But  they  had  a  "bad 
heart,"  as  Indians  say  when  they  are  angry.  On  their 
way  they  robbed  the  settlers  and  shot  and  wounded  a  man 
near  West  Point.  When  the  news  reached  Omaha,  Secre- 
tary Morton  ordered  General  John  M.  Thayer  to  get 
together  as  many  soldiers  as  possible,  follow  the  Pawnees 
and  punish  them.  About  200  men  with  guns  and  horses 
and  one  cannon  joined  General  Thayer.  They  came  from 
Omaha,  Fontanelle,  Fremont  and  Columbus.  Governor 

, ,    Black   overtook  and 

joined  the  command. 
For  four  days  they  fol- 
lowed the  wide  trail  of 
the  Pawnees  up  the  Elk- 
horn  River.  At  daybreak 
on  the  morning  of  July 
12th  they  surprised  the 
Pawnees  in  camp  on  a 
little  creek,  ten  miles 
west  of  where  Norfolk 
now  is.  General  Thayer, 
at  the  head  of  his  200  soldiers,  charged  upon  the  camp  at 
once.  The  Pawnees,  men,  women  and  children,  came  rush- 
ing out  of  their  tepees  in  great  terror.  Their  chief  seized  an 


PAWNEE  COUNCIL  ROCK.     (From  photo- 
graph by  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY  255 

American  flag  and  rushed  toward  General  Thayer  calling 
out,  "Good  Indian!  No  shoot!"  General  Thayer  halted 
his  soldiers  and  after  a  parley  agreed  that  the  Pawnees 
should  surrender  six  men  who  had  attacked  the  settlers, 
should  pay  for  all  damage  they  had  done,  and  should  march 
overland  with  the  soldiers  to  their  future  home  upon  the 
Loup. 

Battle  Creek. —  Thus  the  Pawnee  war  ended  without  a 
battle,  but  the  little  creek  where  this  took  place  was  named 
Battle  Creek  and  is  so  called  to  this  day. 

The  First  Attempt  to  Make  Nebraska  a  State. —  The 
year  1860  is  noted  in  Nebraska  annals  for  the  first  attempt 
to  make  the  territory  a  state.  The  people  voted  upon  the 
question  with  the  result  that  there  were  2,094  votes  in 
favor,  and  2,372  against  and  so  statehood  was  postponed. 

Slavery  Prohibited. —  The  sixth  Nebraska  legislature 
passed  a  bill  to  prohibit  holding  slaves  in  Nebraska.  Gov- 
ernor Black  vetoed  the  bill,  claiming  that  there  were  so  few 
slaves  in  Nebraska  it  was  not  worth  while  to  pass  such  a  bill 
and  that  the  people  could  settle  the  question  when  Nebraska 
became  a  state.  The  legislature  repassed  the  bill  over  his 
veto. 

Settlers'  Hardships.  The  Free  Homestead  BUI.—  The 
land  question  was  still  one  of  great  interest  in  Nebraska. 
In  1859  Nebraska  lands  were  first  offered  for  sale  by  the 
United  States.  Settlers  living  on  these  lands  had  to  pay 
$1.25  per  acre  for  their  claims  or  see  them  sold  to  specula- 
tors. Many  of  the  settlers  were  so  poor  that  they  had  to 
borrow  the  money  at  25  to  100  per  cent  interest  or  lose  their 
homes.  For  this  they  blamed  the  government  at  Wash- 
ington. The  West  wished  for  a  free  homestead  law,  giving 
to  each  settler  160  acres  of  land  for  a  home,  if  he  would  live 
on  it  for  five  years.  The  Republican  party  favored  a  free 
homestead  law,  as  did  also  a  part  of  the  Democratic  party. 
All  the  people  of  Nebraska,  both  Democrats  and  Republicans, 
were  in  favor  of  such  a  law  because  they  wished  to  have 


256  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

more  settlers  come  in,  make  homes  here  and  help  to  develop 
the  country.  In  1860,  Congress  passed  a  homestead  law, 
giving  to  each  settler  160  acres  of  land,  if  he  would  live 
five  years  upon  it  and  pay  twenty-five  cents  an  acre.  Presi- 
dent Buchanan  vetoed  the  act. 

The  First  Telegram.— On  August  29,  1860,  the  first 
Nebraska  telegraph  line  was  completed  between  St.  Joseph, 
Missouri,  and  Brownville,  and  the  first  telegram  sent  was 
as  follows: 

BROWNVILLE,  Neb.,  Aug.  29,  1860. 

Nebraska  sends  greeting  to  the  states.  The  telegraph  line  was 
completed  to  this  place  to-day  and  the  first  office  in  Nebraska  formally 
opened. 

"Westward  the  star  of  empire  takes  its  way." 

CITIZENS. 


Nebraska  Changes  from  Democratic  to  Republican.— 
At  the  election  in  1860,  Nebraska  became  Republican  and 
remained  so  for  thirty  years.  The  veto  of  the  homestead 
bill  by  President  Buchanan  probably  did  more  than  any 
other  one  thing  to  bring  this  about.  Governor  Black's 
veto  of  the  anti-slavery  bill  also  helped.  A  third  cause  was 
the  split  in  the  Democratic  party  between  the  North  and 
the  South. 

Nebraska  Soldiers  in  the  Civil  War. —  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  chosen  President  in  1860.  Soon  after  came  the  seces- 
sion of  the  South  from  the  Union.  President  Lincoln  called 
for  soldiers.  Republicans  and  Democrats  in  the  North 
answered  the  call.  Governor  Black  raised  a  regiment  of 
soldiers  in  Pennsylvania,  was  made  their  colonel  and  was 
killed  in  Virginia.  The  people  of  Nebraska  were  poor  and 
scattered,  but  they  raised  the  First  Nebraska  regiment  of 
1,000  men  which  marched  to  the  front  under  Colonel  John 
M.  Thayer  and  fought  under  General  Grant  at  Fort  Donel- 
son,  Shiloh  and  in  other  battles. 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY 


257 


GOVERNOR  ALVIN  SAUNDERS 


Governor  Alvin  Saunders. —  President  Lincoln  appointed 
Alvin  Saunders  of  Omaha  governor  of  Nebraska  territory. 
He  was  our  fifth  governor,  the  first  Republican  governor, 
and  held  the  office  until  1867  when 
Nebraska  became  a  state. 

The  Free  Homestead  Law.— 
In  1862  Congress  passed  the  free 
homestead  law,  giving  every  settler 
160  acres  of  land.  President  Lin- 
coln signed  the  act.  The  first 
homestead  in  the  United  States 
was  taken  by  Daniel  Freeman  on 
Cub  Creek  in  Gage  county,  a  few 
miles  from  Beatrice.  The  home- 
stead law  became  one  of  the  most 
popular  laws  ever  enacted.  Under 
it  Nebraska  and  all  the  great  West 
were  settled  by  thousands  of  hardy 
pioneers  eager  to  get  free  homes  for  themselves  and 
their  children. 

The  Sioux  and  Cheyenne  Indian  War. —  The  war  at  the 
South  went  on.  More  soldiers  were  called  for  and  came 
from  Nebraska  as  from  other  parts  of  the  Union.  Suddenly 
while  the  soldiers  from  Nebraska  were  absent  in  the  South 
in  August,  1864,  the  Sioux  and  Cheyenne  Indians,  living 
on  the  plains  of  western  Nebraska,  raided  the  settlements 
along  the  Blue  and  Platte  rivers,  killing  men,  women  and 
children,  burning  houses  and  driving  off  stock.  At  the  same 
time  the  Sioux  in  Dakota  and  Minnesota  were  on  the 
warpath  and  the  whole  frontier  was  in  danger.  The  men 
of  the  First  Nebraska  regiment  were  recalled  from  the 
South  and  sent  to  Fort  Kearney  to  protect  the  settlers. 
A  second  Nebraska  regiment  was  enlisted  under  Colonel 
Robert  W.  Furnas  and  sent  up  the  Missouri  River  where  it 
helped  to  win  a  great  victory  over  the  Sioux  at  the  battle 
of  Whitestone  Hills. 


258 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


Nebraska  Becomes  a  State. —  At  this  time  the  people  of 
Nebraska  thought  much  of  becoming  a  state.  The  boun- 
daries of  Nebraska  had  been  changed  several  times  since 
it  was  first  marked  out  in  1854.  Between  1861  and  1863 
Colorado  and  Idaho  had  been  cut  off  on  the  west  and 
Dakota  on  the  north.  For  a  time  in  1863,  Nebraska  was 
extended  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  but  by  1864  it  had 
nearly  its  present  size  and  shape.  In  1864  Congress  passed 
an  act  permitting  Nebraska  to  become  a  state  when  the 
people  there  were  ready.  The  people  were  not  ready  until 
1866,  when  the  question  was  voted  upon  in  a  very  hotly 


OUTLINE   MAP  OF  NEBRASKA  IN  1863.     (Drawing  by  Miss  Martha  Turner.) 

contested  election  and  carried  by  a  majority  of  about  100. 
The  members  of  the  legislature  framed  a  constitution,  which 
Congress  would  not  accept  because  it  permitted  only  white 
men  to  vote.  Congress  required  the  Nebraska  legislature 
to  meet  again  and  declare  that  no  one  should  be  deprived 
of  the  right  to  vote  on  account  of  his  colori  When  this 
was  done,  President  Andrew  Johnson  issued  a  proclamation 
making  Nebraska  a  state  on  March  1,  1867. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Make  a  map  of  Nebraska  Territory  in  1854. 

2.  Where  were  there  white  people  in  Nebraska  in  1854  and  what  did  they  do? 

3.  What  effects  had  the  Platte  River  on  Nebraska  Territory? 

4.  What  difference  between  getting  land  in  1854  and  now? 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  TERRITORY  259 

5.    In  what  respects  are  Nebraska  schools  better  than  in  territorial  days 

and  in  what  not  so  good? 
6    Why  did  not  the  "good  times"  of  1856  last? 

7.  What  was  accomplished  by  the  "Florence  Secession?" 

8.  When  and  why  was  the  Republican  party  organized  in  Nebraska? 

9.  Would  it  have  been  better  if  the  South  Platte  region  had  been  made  a 

part  of  Kansas?     Why? 

10.  Why  did  the  people  of  all  parties  in  Nebraska  desire  a  homestead  law? 

1 1 .  Why  did  the  Democrats  help  President  Lincoln  to  put  down  the  rebellion? 

12.  What  had  to  be  done  before  Nebraska  became  a  State? 


CHAPTER  VI 
NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 

Lincoln  the  New  State  Capital. — •  The  new  state  Nebras- 
ka had  a  new  capital.  During  the  long  fight  between  the 
North  and  South  Platte  sections,  the  South  Platte,  being 
nearer  to  the  settled  states  and  farther  from  the  hostile 
Indians,  had  outgrown  the  North  Platte.  Thus  it  had 

more  votes  in  the  leg- 
islature of  1866  which 
passed  an  act  to  re- 
move the  capital  from 
Omaha. 

The  new  capital 
was  named  for  Presi- 
dent Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  the  name  was  given 
by  its  enemies.  Otoe 
county  had  led  the 
fight  for  removal  of 
the  capital  from  Oma- 
ha. Its  members  of 
the  legislature  had  been  opposed  to  President  Lincoln. 
The  North  Platte  members  who  wished  to  keep  the  capital 
at  Omaha  moved  to  make  the  name  Lincoln,  thinking  that 
the  Otoe  county  legislators  would  refuse  to  vote  for  a 
capital  so  named.  But  the  ruse  failed;  their  votes  were 
cast  for  the  bill  and  Lincoln  became  the  name  of  our 
capital,  instead  of  Douglas  as  was  suggested  in  the  removal 
bill  of  1857. 

Three  men,  Governor  David  Butler,  Secretary  Thomas 
P.  Kennard  and  Auditor  John  J.  Gitlespie,  were  appointed 
to  locate  the  new  capital,  which  was  to  be  at  some  point 

260 


FIRST  STATE  CAPITOL  AT  LINCOLN,   1869. 
(From  photograph  collection  of  A.  E.  Sheldon.) 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 


261 


within  the  counties  of  Saunders,  Butler,  Seward  and  Lancas- 
ter. On  July  29,  1867,  they  selected  the  present  site  be- 
tween Salt  and  Antelope 
creeks,  which  was  then 
open  prairie  with  only 
two  or  three  log  cabins. 
The  Great  Immigra- 
tion.—  When  Nebraska 
became  a  state,  the  war 
between  the  North  and 
South  was  over,  the  hos- 
tile Indians  had  beende- 


DAVID  BOTLER  T.  P.  KEXNABD       JOHN  J.  OILLESPIE 


feated  along  the  frontier 

and  thousands  of  immi-     THE  Tf REE 7°^,*™  °f  LINCOLN.    (Cour- 
tesy of  Nebraska  State  Journal.) 

grants  poured  west  in 

search  of  free  homes.  They  came  in  all  possible  ways,  some 
up  the  Missouri  River  in  steamboats,  some  on  the  railroads 
across  Iowa,  but  more  came  in  covered  wagons,  or  "  prairie 
schooners"  as  they  were  called,  drawn  by  horses,  mules  or 
oxen.  In  these  came  the  pioneers  with  their  children;  often 
with  a  box  of  chickens  tied  on  behind,  while  a  few  cattle  and 
the  family  dog  brought  up  the  rear.  Alt  the  roads  leading 

into  and  across  Nebras- 
ka were  white  with  these 
land  ships,  and  soon  the 
valleys  and  prairies  of 
the  eastern  half  of  the 
state  were  dotted  with 
dark  spots,  where  they 
had  anchored  and  the 
men  and  women  in  them 
(From      had  begun  to  break  the 
prairies  and  build  homes. 
Log  Cabins,  Sod  Houses  and  Dugouts. —  The  houses 
of  those  days  were  very  different  from  the  houses  you  see 
in   Nebraska  to-day.     The  very  earliest  pioneers  settled 


FIRST  LOG  HOUSE  IN  LINCOLN. 
early  painting.) 


262 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


along  the  streams  where  there  were  trees  and  built  log 
houses.  Those  who  came  later  and  settled  upon  the  prairie 
had  only  one  material  with  which  to  build  and  that  was 

prairie  sod.  They  cut 
the  tough  sod  and  piled 
it  into  walls,  covering 
the  top  with  poles,  grass, 
sod  and  clay,  leaving 
openings  for  the  win- 
dows and  door.  There 
were  more  of  these  sod 
houses  than  of  any  other 
kind  and  they  were 
very  comfortable,  being 
warm  in  winter  and 
They  were  often  called  "  dobies."  Others 


A  PIONEEE  DUGOUT.    (From  S.  D.  Butcher 
collection.) 


cool  in  summer. 

made  their  houses  by  digging  into  a  hillside,  covering  the  top 

of  the  hole  with  poles,  grass  and  earth,  leaving  a  space  in  one 

end,  usually  toward  the  south,  open  for  a  door.     These  were 

called    "  dug-outs."     The   floors   were   often   of   the   bare 

ground.     These  early  settlers  worked  very  hard  to  break 

land  and  plant  seeds,  build  houses  and  dig  wells.     All  they 

had  was  the  good  Nebraska  soil. 

Of  it  they  made  their  houses  and 

barns  and  from  it  they  raised  all 

that  they  had  to  eat  and  sell.    Very 

kind   to   these   pioneers   was   this 

good,  warm,  rich  Nebraska  soil,  for 

out  of  it  blossomed  the  splendid 

farms  and  homes  and  children,  and 

all  that  makes  Nebraska   so   fair 

and  prosperous  to-day. 

Governor    David    Butler    Im- 
peached.—In  1868  David  Butler 
was  re-elected  governor  and  again  in  1870.     He  was  very 
popular  with   the   old-time   pioneers  whose   many   hard- 


GOVERNOR  DAVID  BUTLER. 
(E.  G.  Clements  collection.) 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 


263 


ships  he  himself  had  shared.  On  the  other  hand  he  made 
some  enemies  by  his  bold  aggressive  way  of  doing  things. 
In  1871,  the  charge  of  using  state  money  for  his  own  pur- 
poses was  brought  against  him.  He  was  tried  before  the 
State  Senate,  impeached  and  removed  from  office  and  in 
his  place,  the  Secretary  of  State,  Wm.  H.  James,  became 
the  governor.  Governor  Butler  turned  over  land  to  the 
State  which  more  than  paid  what  he  owed  it.  His  trial 
caused  great  bitterness  at  the  time 
and  for  many  years  after.  He  still 
retained  the  confidence  of  his  friends 
and  years  after  was  elected  to  the 
,  legislature  by  the  people  of  Pawnee 
County,  his  home. 

Railroad  Building  and  Railroad 
Aid. — •  There  were  no  railroads  in 
the  South  Platte  region  when  the 
capital  was  moved  there,  and  only 
the  Union  Pacific  was  building 
north  of  the  Platte.  In  order  to 
encourage  railroad  companies  to 
build,  Congress  granted  half  the 
land  on  either  side  of  the  track 
for  a  number  of  miles  to  the  company  building  through 
it.  The  other  half  was  left  for  the  settlers,  but  the  home- 
steads inside  of  this  land  grant  were  cut  down  from  160  to 
80  acres.  In  addition  the  Nebraska  legislature  in  1869  gave 
2,000  acres  of  state  lands  for  each  mile  of  railroad.  Many 
towns  and  counties  also  voted  to  give  money  to  roads 
which  would  build  to  them.  There  was  quick  response  to 
these  liberal  offers.  The  Burlington  crossed  the  Missouri 
River  at  Plattsmouth  in  July,  1869.  It  was  the  first  railroad 
to  reach  Lincoln  a  year  later,  and  in  1872  it  built  its  line  to 
a  junction  with  the  Union  Pacific  at  Kearney.  The  Mid- 
land Pacific  was  built  in  1871  from  Nebraska  City  to  Lincoln 
and  later  built  west  through  Seward,  York  and  Aurora  to 


Gov.  WILLIAM  H.  JAMES. 
(E.  G.  Clements  collection.) 


264 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


Central  City.  It  now  belongs  to  the  Burlington.  The 
St.  Joseph  and  Denver  road  entered  Nebraska  in  1870  and 
reached  Hastings  in  1872.  All  these  lines  were  in  the  South 

Platte  region.  In  the  North  Platte 
the  Omaha  &  Northwestern  road 
was  built  to  Blair,  the  Sioux  City 
&  Pacific  road  was  built  from 
Missouri  valley  to  Fremont  and 
branches  of  the  Union  Pacific  were 
begun. 

Governor  Robert  W.  Furnas.— 
In  1872  Robert  W.  Furnas,  Repub- 
lican, of  Brownville  was  elected 
governor.  He  served  two  years, 
years  of  hard  times  and  distress, 
and  then  returned  to  his  farm  and 
orchard  at  Brownville,  there  to 
become  a  leader  in  Nebraska  agri- 
culture during  the  forty  years  of 
his  life  which  followed. 

The  Hard  Times  of  1873. —  Many  hardships  and  dis- 
couragements were  met  by  the  new-comers.  There  were 
prairie  fires,  grasshoppers,  droughts  and  Indian  raids.  Then 
hard  times,  called  the  panic  of  1873,  came  to  the  whole 
country.  Nearly  all  the  Nebraskans  were  farmers.  The 
prices  of  everything  the  farmer  had  to  sell  went  down  very 
low,  so  low  that  it  would  hardly  pay  to  haul  to  market. 
As  railroads  were  very  few  and  far  between  most  of  the 
Nebraska  farmers  had  to  haul  their  produce  a  long  distance, 
some  of  them  fifty  to  a  hundred  miles,  to  reach  a  market 
at  a  railroad  town.  Wheat  sold  as  low  as  forty  cents  a 
bushel,  corn  as  low  as  eight  cents,  eggs  five  cents  a  dozen, 
butter  eight  cents  a  pound,  cattle  and  hogs  two  cents  a  pound. 
For  several  years  the  settlers  burned  twisted  hay  and  corn 
for  fuel.  Some  grew  discouraged  and  moved  back  east,  but 
others  stayed,  worked  harder,  saved,  and  kept  their  homes. 


Gov.  ROBERT  W.  FURNAS 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 


265 


Gov.  SILAS  W.  GARBER. 
(From  Clements  collection.) 


Governor  Silas  Garber. —  In  the  four  or  five  years 
following  1870,  pioneers  pushed  out  and  settled  the  Repub- 
lican Valley  region  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  state. 
Prominent  among  these  pioneers  was  Silas  Garber,  Republi- 
can, of  Red  Cloud,  who  was  elected  governor  in  1874  and 
re-elected  in  1876.  During  his  term 
the  present  state  constitution  was 
adopted  and  the  larger  part  of 
the  Indians  removed  from  the 
state. 

The  Removal  of  Sioux,  Pawnee 
and  Ponca  Indians. —  In  1876  war 
with  the  Sioux  Indians  broke  out 
on  the  Nebraska  border.  The  chief 
cause  of  this  war  was  the  rush  of 
white  men  into  the  Black  Hills, 
the  Indian  country,  for  gold.  The 
roads  most  traveled  to  the  Black  Hills  led  from  the  Union 
Pacific  railroad  across  northwestern  Nebraska,  crossing 
the  North  Platte  at  Camp  Clark  bridge.  Thousands  of 
people  traveled  these  roads  and  had  frequent  fights  with 
the  Sioux  Indians  who  claimed  all  the  country  north  of 
the  Platte.  When  peace  was  made,  the  Sioux  ceded  all 
their  land  in  western  Nebraska  and  removed  to  South 
Dakota.  The  Pawnee  and  Ponca  tribes  were  removed  to 
Oklahoma  in  1875  and  1877,  and  thus  nearly  all  of  northern 
Nebraska  was  opened  for  settlers. 

The  Grange  in  Nebraska. —  During  these  hard  times, 
the  farmer's  movement  took  form  in  Nebraska.  Too  many 
middlemen,  too  little  money,  too  high  railroad  rates  and 
unfair  taxes  were  among  the  complaints  of  the  farmers. 
In  the  granges,  which  were  secret  societies  meeting  in  the 
country  schoolhouses,  they  discussed  the  evils  of  the  times 
and  plans  to  remove  them.  Open  meetings  to  which  all 
were  invited  were  held.  There  was  deep  and  earnest  debate 
on  hard  problems.  Women  also  took  part  in  these  meet- 


266  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

ings  and  in  them  the  foundations  of  future  farmers'  move- 
ments were  laid. 

The  Good  Templars,  Red  Ribbon  Clubs  and  Crusaders.— 
The  temperance  movement  also  became  active  at  this  time 
and  spread  through  a  secret  society,  the  Good  Templars. 
It  grew  rapidly  for  a  number  of  years  and  was  aided  by 
Red  Ribbon  Clubs  and  by  the  Crusaders,  bands  of  women 
who  prayed  and  sang  in  saloons  and  on  the  sidewalk  in 
order  to  induce  people  to  stop  drinking.  There  was  intense 
feeling  for  and  against  both  the  grangers  and  the  temperance 
agitators.  The  effect  of  the  debates  held  by  them  during 
the  hard  times  was  apparent  through  after  years. 

Irish,  German,  Swede,  Bohemian,  Russian,  Danish, 
Polish  and  French  Colonies. —  In  this  period  from  1870  to 
1880  many  colonies  of  settlers  came  to  the  state.  Irish 
colonies  settled  Holt  County  in  1874  and  Greeley  County  in 
1877.  Germans  settled  in  Madison,  Stanton  and  Thayer 
counties  in  1867-1870.  The  Swedes  settled  in  Polk  and 
Saunders  counties  about  1870  and  in  Phelps  and  Burt 
counties  about  1880.  Bohemians  founded  colonies  in  Knox, 
Colfax,  Saunders  and  Saline  counties  about  1870.  Russian 
Germans  began  to  settle  Jefferson  County  about  1874  and 
extended  their  settlements  into  Clay  and  Hamilton  counties. 
Danish,  Swedish,  Bohemian  and  Polish  colonies  found 
homes  in  Howard  and  Valley  counties.  French  settlements 
were  made  in  Richardson,  Nemaha,  Antelope  and  other 
counties.  Each  of  these  nationalities  added  a  new  element  to 
Nebraska  life,  making  our  population  more  varied  and  inter- 
esting. Each  has  done  well  its  part  in  building  a  great  state. 

The  New  Constitution. —  There  was  a  call,  as  the  state 
grew,  for  a  new  constitution.  The  first  one  had  been 
framed  in  haste  by  the  legislature  in  1866.  A  convention 
met  at  Lincoln  in  June,  1871,  and  made  a  new  constitution 
in  forty-seven  days.  In  its  most  important  parts  it  was 
modeled  on  the  Illinois  Constitution  of  1870.  When  the 
people  voted  on  the  new  constitution  the  vote  stood  7,986 


267 


268  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

for  and  8,677  against.  It  was  defeated  chiefly  because  it 
taxed  church  property  and  gave  railroads  their  right  of 
way  only  while  they  used  it  for  running  trains.  The 
demand  for  a  new  constitution  kept  growing.  In  1875 
another  convention  met  in  Lincoln  which  framed  another 
constitution  very  much  like  the  one  of  1871.  It  was  adopted 
by  the  people  in  November  of  that  year  by  a  vote  of  30,202 
to  5,704.  This  is  our  present  constitution  and  is  sometimes 
called  the  " Grasshopper  Constitution"  because  it  was  made 
in  a  year  of  grasshopper  plague  and  hard  times. 

The  Great  Prison  Rebellion. —  On  January  11,  1875, 
the  convicts  in  the  State  Penitentiary,  three  miles  south  of 
Lincoln,  rose  in  rebellion,  took  the  warden  and  inside  guards 
prisoners  and  armed  themselves  with  guns.  Led  by  bold 
and  desperate  men,  it  was  their  plan  to  dress  themselves 
in  citizens'  clothes  and  escape  after  dark.  The  outside 
guards  gave  warning.  Citizens  of  Lincoln  and  a  company 
of  United  States  soldiers  from  Omaha  surrounded  the  prison. 
A  number  of  shots  were  fired.  Mrs.  Woodhurst,  the  war- 
den's wife,  persuaded  the  rebels  to  surrender,  and  what  is 

called  "The  Great  Rebellion  in  the 
Penitentiary"  was  over. 

Passing  of  Hard  Times. — Slowly 
the  years  from  1873  to  1878  with 
their  hard  times,  Indian  wars,  grass- 
hoppers, droughts  and  great  prairie 
fires,  passed  and  better  days  came, 
bringing  better  crops,  better  prices, 
and  hope  to  the  hearts  of  those  who 
had  endured  so  many  hardships. 
Gov.  ALBINUS  NANCE.  (From  With  these  better  days  came  a  host 

Clements  collection.)  Q£  immigrants  to  the  state. 

Governor  Albinus  Nance. —  In  1878  Albinus  Nance, 
Republican,  of  Osceola,  was  elected  governor  and  re-elected 
in  1880.  He  was  called  "the  boy  governor,"  being  thirty 
years  of  age  when  chosen.  During  his  four  years  in  the 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE  269 

office  there  was  a  revival  of  business,  and  railroad  building, 
and  a  turning  of  the  tide  of  immigration  toward  the  North 
Platte  region. 

Settlement  of  Western  Nebraska. —  By  the  year  1880 
the  people  of  Nebraska,  full  of  hope  and  energy,  started  to 
settle  the  western  half  of  the  state  which  at  that  time  was 
nearly  all  wild  land.  The  Burlington  built  its  line  up  the 
Republican  valley  and  across  the  plains  to  Denver.  The 
Northwestern,  then  called  the  Fremont,  Elkhorn  and 
Missouri  Valley,  started  its  long  extension  up  the  Elkhorn 
River  and  across  the  sandhill  region  to  the  Black  Hills.  The 
Missouri  Pacific  came  into  the  state  from  the  southeast  and 
before  the  next  ten  years  were  ended,  the  Rock  Island 
pushed  its  line  across  Nebraska  to  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. All  was  again  activity.  Long  lines  of  white  cov- 
ered wagons  were  again  on  the  road  for  the  grassy  valleys 
among  the  sand  hills  and  the  smooth  plains  of  the  great 
table-land  beyond.  New  towns  were  started.  The  pop- 
ulation of  the  state  more  than  doubled  between  1880  and 
1890. 

During  these  years  the  northwest  and  southwest  corners 
of  Nebraska,  and  also  the  smooth  high  plains  in  the  western 
part,  were  being  settled.  The  sandhill  region  was  the  only 
part  of  Nebraska  remaining  unsettled,  and  even  there  the 
valleys  at  the  heads  of  the  rivers  and  around  the  sandhill 
lakes  were  dotted  with  houses. 

The  Great  Missouri  Flood.—  The  year  1881  was  the  year 
of  the  great  high  water  in  the  Missouri  River.  An  ice  gorge 
formed  at  a  bend  in  the  river  in  Dixon  County,  damming  the 
waters  and  making  a  great  lake  which  drove  hundreds  of 
farmers  from  their  homes  and  completely  flooded  the  town 
of  Niobrara.  When  the  flood  finally  passed  away,  the 
people  of  Niobrara  moved  their  town  to  a  new  site  above 
high  water,  three  miles  from  its  old  location.  There  it  is 
to-day.  This  year  is  known  along  the  Missouri  River  as 
the  year  of  the  "  Great  Flood." 


270 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


Gov.    JAMES    W.    DAWES. 
(From  Clements  collection.) 


The  Omaha  Strike  and  the  State  Militia. —  On  February 
27,  1882,  several  hundred  laborers  engaged  in  moving  dirt 
at  Omaha  went  on  a  strike.  Riots  followed  and  on  March 

12th,  the  Governor  called  out  the 
state  militia,  which  camped  in  Oma- 
ha several  weeks.  Their  camp  was 
called  "  Camp  Dump."  In  a  scuffle 
between  the  soldiers  and  strikers 
one  striker  was  killed.  An  extra 
session  of  the  legislature  was  called 
to  vote  money  for  paying  the  sol- 
diers. 

Governor  James  W.  Dawes. — 
In  1882  James  W.  Dawes,  Repub- 
lican, of  Crete,  was  elected  gover- 
nor and  re-elected  in  1884.  His 
term  was  marked  by  the  final  strug- 
gle between  homesteaders  and  cattlemen  in  western  Nebras- 
ka. How  to  handle  the  state  school  lands  became  a  prom- 
inent question  during  this  period  and  continued  to  be  for  a 
number  of  years. 

The  Free  Land  Period. —  The  great  movement  of  settlers 
west  was  helped  by  the  changes  in  the  land  laws.  A  settler 
in  Nebraska  in  1854  could  take  160  acres  and  after  living 
on  it  six  months,  buy  it  from  the  United  States  for  $1.25 
an  acre.  This  was  called  a  pre-emption.  In  1863,  the 
homestead  law  went  into  effect.  Under  this  a  settler  could 
take  160  acres  and  have  it  free  by  living  upon  it  five  years. 
In  1873  the  timber  claim  act  was  passed.  Under  it  one 
could  get  160  acres  by  planting  10  acres  of  it  to  trees  and 
taking  care  of  them  for  eight  years.  All  three  of  these  laws 
were  in  force  from  1873  to  1891,  and  under  them  a  settler 
could  in  a  few  years  get  480  acres  of  land. 

The  Struggle  between  the  Grangers  and  the  Cattlemen.— 
There  were  conflicts  between  the  cattlemen,  whose  great 
herds  fed  on  free  pasture,  and  the  grangers,  as  the  settlers 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE  271 

were  called,  who  came  to  farm.  Cattlemen  began  to  go 
into  western  Nebraska  between  1865  and  1875.  Their 
ranches  were  located  where  there  was  the  best  grass  and  plen- 
ty of  water.  These  ranches  were  many  miles  apart.  All 
the  cattle  were  turned  loose  summer  and  winter  and  allowed 
to  find  feed  and  water  where  it  best  suited  them.  The 


A  WESTERN  CATTLE  RANGE.     (From  S.  D.  Butcher  collection) 

cattle  of  different  ranches  ran  together  on  the  ranges.  Each 
ranchman  knew  his  own  cattle  because  they  were  marked 
with  his  brand.  Once  a  year,  all  the  cattlemen  in  a  district 
drove  the  cattle  together  and  branded  each  calf  with  the 
brand  of  the  cow  which  it  followed.  This  was  called  the 
roundup.  The  grass  on  the  plains  died  on  its  roots  in  the 
late  summer  of  each  year  so  that  the  frost  did  not  kill  it. 
Thus  the  country  in  the  fall  and  winter  was  one  great  free 
haystack  and  a  very  cheap  and  easy  place  to  raise  cattle. 


272 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


When  the  grangers  first  began  to  settle  on  the  cattle 
ranges  of  western  Nebraska,  the  cattlemen  told  them  that 
it  was  too  dry  there  to  farm,  that  they  had  been  there  for 

years  and  that  the 
country  dried  up  every 
summer  and  was  fit  only 
for  cattle-ranges.  The 
grangers  did  not  believe 
them.  They  saw  the 
beautiful,  smooth  prairie 
free  for  homesteads  to 
all  who  would  take  them 
and  they  kept  on  com- 
ing in.  Two  things 


A  FKONTIER  NEBRASKA  GRANGER. 
S.  D.  Butcher  collection.) 


(From 


combined  to  help  the 
homesteaders  in  their  struggle  for  western  Nebraska  during 
the  period  between  1880  and  1890.  First  the  hard  winters  of 
1880-81  and  1883-84.  Deep  snow  fell  on  the  cattle-ranges ; 
prolonged  cold  weather  followed.  Thousands  of  cattle  died 
and  many  cattlemen  were  ruined.  Then  came  several  years 
of  abundant  summer  rainfall.  The  grangers  grew  splendid 
crops  of  all  kinds  on  the  high  plains 
where  the  cattlemen  told  them  no 
rain  ever  fell  after  the  4th  of 
July.  So  the  whole  of  western 
Nebraska  was  quickly  settled  with 
farmers. 

Governor  John  M.  Thayer. —  In 
1886  General  John  M.  Thayer,  Re- 
publican, of  Grand  Island,  was 
chosen  governor  and  again  in 
1888.  During  his  term  the  set- 
tlement of  neglected  parts  of  the 
state,  especially  the  sandhill  region,  went  rapidly  for- 
ward. The  present  state  capitol  was  completed  during 
his  term. 


Gov.  JOHN  M.  THAYER. 

(From  Clements  collection."; 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 


273 


The  Great  "  Q  »  Strike.—  The  year  1888  is  noted  for  the 
great  Burlington  strike.     At  a  given  signal  on  February 
27th,   practically  all  the  engineers  and  firemen  on  that 
railroad   left    their   en- 
gines,    demanding     an 
increase  of  pay.     This 
strike  lasted  throughout 
the     summer,     causing 
great  loss  to  the  rail- 
road,  to  the  workmen 
and  to  the  people  of  the 
state.    The  railroad 
company  brought  in 
new  men  from  the  East 
to  take  the  places  of  the 


NEBRASKA  STATE  CAPITOL  IN  1889.   (From 
photograph  by  U.  G.  Cornell.) 


strikers  and  finally  won.  This  strike,  which  extended  over 
all  the  lines  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  railroad, 
is  known  as  the  " Great  Q  Strike." 

Horse  Stealing  and  Vigilance  Committees. —  In  every 
period  of  Nebraska's  history,  there  has  been  some  stealing 
of  horses  and  cattle  along  the  frontier,  and  the  settlers  there 
have  organized  to  protect  their  stock  and  punish  the  thieves. 
Hanging  was  the  usual  punishment  for  stealing  stock  in 
border  settlements.  " Vigilance  committees"  was  the 
name  usually  given  to  the  settlers'  clubs  for  their  own  pro- 
tection. The  members  of  such  committees  solemnly  prom- 
ised to  help  each  other  and  to  punish  thieves.  Cattle  and 
horses  were  stolen  on  a  large  scale  after  1880  when  settle- 
ments pushed  into  the  far  Northwest.  The  deep  canyons  and 
the  sand  hills  made  convenient  places  for  hiding  stock, 
until  it  could  be  run  out  of  the  country.  Vigilance  commit- 
tees were  organized  by  the  settlers  throughout  this  frontier 
region.  There  were  numerous  fights  between  the  settlers 
and  the  thieves.  ' '  Kid  Wade, ' '  a  leader  of  the  horse  thieves, 
was  hung  to  a  telegraph  pole  at  Bassett  in  1884,  and  "Doc 
Middleton,"  another,  was  shot  and  afterwards  sent  to  the 


274  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

penitentiary.  This  war  between  the  " rustlers,"  as  the 
stock  thieves  were  called,  and  the  settlers  lasted  nearly 
twenty  years,  and  ended  only  when  the  building  of  railroads, 
telegraph  and  telephone  lines  drove  the  rustlers  out  of  the 
state. 

The  Great  Drought. —  Then  came  the  year  of  the  great 
drought,  1890.  No  rain  fell  for  weeks.  Not  only  in  western 
Nebraska,  but  over  the  whole  state  and  other  western 
states,  this  was  true.  Nearly  all  the  crops  were  failures. 
In  the  older  parts  of  Nebraska  there  were  hard  times,  but 
the  people  had  something  saved  from  former  years  and 
managed  to  get  along.  In  western  Nebraska  many  of  the 
people  had  spent  all  they  had  in  getting  settled  on  their 
farms.  There  was  great  suffering  all  over  the  West.  When 
the  legislature  met  in  1891,  it  appropriated  $200,000  with 
which  to  buy  food  and  seed  for  the  settlers.  On  July  26, 
1894,  a  hot  wind  from  the  southwest  again  ruined  the  corn 
crop  and  injured  other  crops.  The  legislature  of  1895 
appropriated  $250,000  more  to  aid  the  settlers  in  the  western 
part  of  the  state.  In  spite  of  this,  thousands  were  discour- 
aged and  left  their  homes  to  find  work  elsewhere. 

The  Panic  of  1893  — Hard  Times  Again. —  A  great  panic 
came  in  1893  while  western  Nebraska  was  being  settled,  just 
as  the  panic  of  1873  came  when  eastern  Nebraska  was  being 
settled.  Banks  broke,  factories  shut  down,  merchants  failed  all 
over  the  country.  Prices  of  farmers'  produce  again  fell  to  the 
lowest  point  and,  although  food  was  so  cheap,  working  men 
in  the  cities  could  scarcely  buy  enough  to  keep  from  starving, 
because  they  had  no  work.  Thousands  of  men  out  of 
employment  gathered  in  armies  and  marched  across  the 
country  to  Washington  to  demand  that  Congress  should 
give  them  work.  In  Nebraska  whole  townships  in  the 
western  part  were  deserted  so  that  one  could  ride  all  day 
finding  nothing  but  empty  houses  and  fields  growing  up 
to  weeds.  These  hard  times  lasted  from  1890  until  about 
1900. 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE  275 

The  Farmers'  Alliance. —  During  the  years  1880  to  1890, 
a  society  called  the  Farmers'  Alliance  had  spread  over 
Nebraska  and  other  western  and  southern  states.  Its 
objects  as  stated  were  to  better  the  condition  of  farmers, 
to  help  them  to  buy  and  sell  on  better  terms,  to  conduct 
evening  schools  for  the  instruction  of  members  in  the  science 
of  exchange  and  government  and  to  furnish  means  of 
social  entertainment.  The  chief  complaint  of  the  Farmers' 


A  FARMERS'  ALLIANCE  CONVENTION.    (From  S.  D.  Butcher  collection.) 

Alliance  was  that  those  who  handled  what  the  farmer  had 
to  sell  took  the  larger  part  of  what  he  produced  for  them- 
selves and  that  those  who  made  and  sold  what  the  farmer 
had  to  buy,  charged  him  an  exorbitant  price.  The  farmers 
also  claimed  that  there  was  a  combine  of  the  moneyed 
interests,  including  the  great  banks,  the  railroads,  the  manu- 
facturers, and  merchants,  to  rob  the  rest  of  the  people  of 
what  they  produced.  It  was  also  claimed  that  these  large 
interests  conspired  to  control  both  of  the  great  political 
parties  and  through  them  to  elect  men  to  office  who  were 
in  favor  of  the  capitalists. 

The  Political  Revolution  of  1890.— In  the  year  1890 
the  dissatisfaction  of  the  farmers  of  the  West  and  South 


276 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


took  form  in  a  great  political  movement  which  was  hastened 
by  the  work  of  education  and  organization  of  the  Farmers' 
Alliance  and  by  the  very  general  debt  and  distress  of  the 
farmers.  In  a  single  campaign  the  united  farmers  broke 
away  from  both  of  the  old  parties  and  over  a  large  part  of 

the  West  and  the  South, 
defeated  their  candi- 
dates for  office,  electing 
men  of  the  new  move- 
ment. In  Nebraska,  the 
campaign  of  1890  will 
long  be  remembered.  As 
there  were  no  crops  to 
harvest,  the  farmers 
gathered  by  thousands 
in  great  open  air  meet- 
ings to  talk  over  their 
grievances  and  to  plan 
how  to  remove  them. 
Orators  of  the  common  people  addressed  these  meetings, 
talking  to  acres  of  eager  faces  amid  great  enthusiasm.  Many 
new  speakers,  both  men  and  women,  first  found  their  powers 
in  the  excitement  of  this  time.  There  were  processions  of 
wagons  many  miles  long,  filled  with  sunburned  men,  women 
and  children  with  home-made  banners  and  mottoes  express- 
ing their  feelings.  There  were  songs  with  home  made 
words  and  music  such  as  "Goodby  Old  Party,  Goodby," 
sung  with  great  energy  and  greeted  with  enthusiastic 
applause. 

The  Contest.  Governor  James  E.  Boyd. —  When  the 
votes  were  counted  after  the  November,  1890,  election,  it 
was  found  that  the  farmers'  movement  had  elected  a  ma- 
jority of  both  houses  of  the  legislature  in  Nebraska,  and  the 
election  of  governor  was  so  close  that  a  contest  resulted. 
When  the  legislature  met  in  Lincoln  in  January,  1891, 
excitement  ran  high.  After  a  struggle  of  some  days,  the 


CONGRESSMAN  O.  M.  KEM  OP  OUSTER 
COUNTY  AT  HOME.  (FIRST  CONGRESSMAN 
IN  UNITED  STATES  ELECTED  FROM  A  SOD 
HOUSE).  (From  S.  D.  Butcher  collection.) 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 


277 


Democratic  candidate,  Jas.  E.  Boyd,  of  Omaha,  was  seated. 
A  bill  passed  both  houses  reducing  railroad  rates  in  Nebras- 
ka. It  was  vetoed  by  Governor  Boyd.  A  bill  was  passed, 
adopting  the  Australian  secret  bal- 
lot by  means  of  which  a  man  might 
vote  his  convictions  without  the 
knowledge  of  any  other  person. 

The  Pine  Ridge  Indian  War.- 
The  last  Indian  troubles  on  the 
Nebraska  border  came  during  the 
dry  decade  of  hard  times.  The 
Sioux  Indians,  who  once  roamed 
over  all  western  Nebraska  as  their 
hunting  ground,  had  given  up  that 
country  to  the  whites  and  were  set- 
tled in  South  Dakota  along  the 
northern  border  of  Nebraska.  The 
buffalo  and  nearly  all  of  the  other 
game  had  been  killed.  The  old- 
time  Indians  had  nothing  to  do.  The  young  men  grew  up  in 
idleness.  The  United  States  tried  to  teach  them  farming 
and  stock-raising,  but  only  a  very  few  were  willing  to  be 
taught.  The  dry  season  of  1890  burned  up  the  little  patches 
of  corn  and  garden  which  the  Indians  planted.  They 
gathered  in  the  shade  along  the  little  streams  and  listened 
to  the  old  people's  stories  of  the  time  when  the  Sioux  lived 
a  free,  open  life,  hunting  buffalo  and  fighting  their  enemies, 
and  the  white  men  were  far  away.  An  Indian  came  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains  telling  the  Sioux  that  the  Great 
Spirit  had  heard  their  troubles,  that  the  white  men  were 
about  to  be  driven  back,  and  the  buffalo,  deer  and  antelope 
would  return  and  cover  the  plains. 

The  Ghost  Dance. —  The  Indians  began  to  dance  the 
ghost  dance,  going  without  food  for  two  or  three  days,  then 
steaming  themselves  in  little  huts  by  pouring  water  upon 
hot  stones,  then  coming  out  to  dance  in  great  companies. 


GOVERNOR  JAMES  E.  BOYD. 
(From  Clements  collection.) 


278  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

As  they  danced,  they  saw  visions  of  wonderful  good  things 
coming  to  them.  These  ghost  dances  were  kept  up  by  the 
Sioux  during  the  summer  and  fall  of  1890. 

Battle  of  Wounded  Knee.—  On  December  28,  1890,  a 
party  of  about  400  Sioux  under  Chief  Big  Foot  were  halted 
on  their  march  to  Pine  Ridge  by  the  7th  cavalry.  The 
next  morning  Colonel  Forsyth  started  to  take  away  their 
guns  when  some  one  fired  a  shot  and  in  a  moment  the  battle 
was  on.  Thirty-two  soldiers  and  one  hundred  and  fifty-six 
Indians  were  killed,  many  of  the  latter  being  women  and 
children.  This  is  called  the  battle  of  Wounded  Knee  and 
took  place  a  short  distance  from  the  Nebraska  line  in  South 
Dakota.  The  United  States  hurried  several  thousand 
soldiers  to  the  scene  and  the  Nebraska  militia  was  called 
out  to  guard  our  northern  border.  After  several  other 
skirmishes  during  the  winter,  the  Indians  came  in  and 
surrendered  and  thus  ended  what  is  probably  the  last  Indian 
war  in  the  history  of  the  United  States. 

Governor  Lorenzo  Crounse.  —  Lorenzo  Crounse,  Repub- 
lican, of  Ft.  Calhoun,  was  elected  governor  in  1892,  and 
declined  to  be  a  candidate  for  re-election.  During  his 

term,  many  banks  failed  and  some 
of  the  state  money  was  lost  in 
them.  There  was  an  impeachment 
trial  of  three  state  officers  for  mis- 
use of  state  money.  Over  a  million 
dollars  of  public  money  from  the 
sale  of  school  lands  was  supposed 
to  be  in  the  state  treasury  and 
Governor  Crounse  made  efforts  to 
have  it  invested  where  it  would 
Gov.  LORENZO  CROUNSE.  bring  interest  for  support  of  the 

(From  Clements  collection.)  Q£ 


Governor  Silas  A.  Holcomb.  State  School  Money 
Stolen.  —  In  1894,  Silas  A.  Holcomb,  Populist,  of  Broken 
Bow,  was  elected  governor  and  re-elected  in  1896.  Populist 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  .STATE 


279 


or  People's  Independent  was  the  name  given  to  the  party 
which  grew  out  of  the  farmers'  movement.  During  his  term 
the  struggle  over  the  use  of  the  school  money  of  the  state 
went  on.  In  the  end  it  was  found 
that  over  half  a  million  dollars  of 
the  school  money  had  been  lost  or 
stolen,  some  of  it  in  broken  banks, 
and  some  by  state  officers.  J.  S. 
Bartley,  state  treasurer,  was  tried, 
convicted  and  sentenced  to  the  pen- 
itentiary for  twenty  years  for  his 
part  in  this  loss.  Mr.  Bartley  al- 
ways asserted  that  the  money  was 
lost  or  stolen  by  others. 

The  State  School  Lands.— When 
Nebraska  became  a  state,  the 
United  States  gave  to  it,  for  public 
schools,  the  sections  of  land  in  every 
township  numbered  16  and  36,  in 
all  about  3,000,000  acres.  The  state  of  Nebraska  pledged 
the  United  States  that  it  would  never  lose  any  of  this  land 
or  the  price  of  it  when  sold.  The  rent  from  the  land  and  the 
interest  from  the  money  received  for  it  was  to  be  paid 
every  year  to  the  districts  for  the  support  of  public  schools. 
A  little  over  1,000,000  acres  of  this  land  has  been  sold.  Part 
of  the  money  has  been  lost  or  stolen  and  never  replaced. 
In  1897,  an  act  of  the  legislature  forbade  further  sale  of  this 
land.  The  state  has  now  about  1 ,800,000  acres  of  school  land 
which  cannot  be  sold  and  which  is  rising  in  value  every  year. 
The  rental  from  this  land  and  the  interest  on  the  $8,000,000, 
which  remains  of  the  money  the  state  has  received  from  the 
land  sold,  goes  every  year  to  pay  the  teachers  in  Nebraska 
schools.  No  other  state  in  the  Union  has  larger  prospects 
for  the  future  support  of  its  schools  than  has  Nebraska. 

Changes  in  the  Political  Parties.    Free  Silver.—  In  these 
years  there  were  many  changes  in  politics.    A  part  of  the 


Gov.  SILAS  A.  HOLCOMB. 
(From  Clements  collection.) 


280 


Democratic  party  tended  to  Unite  with  the  new  People  s 
Independent  party,  or  Populists,  while  another  part  of  the 
Democrats  was  inclined  to  aid  the  Republican  party  in  order 

to  prevent  the  triumph  of 
the  new  movement.  In 
both  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  parties  there 
was  a  division  at  this  time. 
The  immediate  cause  of  the 
division  was  the  question 
whether  or  not  the  free 
coinage  of  silver  dollars  at 
the  ratio  of  sixteen  grains  of 
silver  to  one  of  gold  should 
be  carried  on  by  the  United 
States  mint.  There  were  a 
number  of  other  questions 
involved  in  the  struggle,  but 
free  silver,  as  it  was  called, 
became  the  war  cry  in  a 
nation-wide  contest.  In 
this  conflict  Nebraska  was 

WILLIAM  JENNINGS  BRYAN  IN   1896.      suddenly  Called  to  play  the 
Courtesy  of  U.  G.  Cornell.)  lading  part. 

William  J.  Bryan  of  Nebraska  Named  for  President— 
In  June,  1896,  the  Democratic  national  convention  at 
Chicago  declared  for  free  silver  and  named  William  J. 
Bryan  of  Nebraska  as  its  candidate  for  president.  The 
Populist  national  convention  at  St.  Louis  in  July  also  nom- 
inated Mr.  Bryan.  The  Republican  national  convention 
declared  against  free  silver  and  nominated  William  McKin- 
ley  of  Ohio  for  president.  Free  silver  Republicans  left  their 
party  and  also  nominated  Mr.  Bryan.  Gold  standard 
Democrats  bolted  and  opposed  Mr.  Bryan.  The  campaign 
of  1896  which  followed  was  the  most  exciting  in  the  United 
States  for  many  years.  It  was  the  first  time  a  candidate 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 


281 


for  president  had  ever  been  named  by  one  of  the  great 
parties  from  a  state  west  of  the  Mississippi  river.  In 
Nebraska,  the  contest  was  fierce  and  close.  Never  before 
were  so  many  political  meetings  held  here  and  never  before 
were  so  many  of  the  greatest  political  speakers  of  the  country 
heard  in  this  state.  At  the  election 
in  November,  Nebraska  gave  a  ma- 
jority of  about  13,000  for  Mr. 
Bryan  for  president,  and  elected 
the  entire  Populist-Democrat  state 
ticket  including  a  majority  of  both 
houses  of  the  legislature.  Since 
this  memorable  campaign,  Nebras- 
ka has  had  a  large  place  and  lead- 
ership in  national  politics. 

Governor  William  A.  Poynter.— 
In  1898  William  A.  Poynter,  Popu- 
list, of  Boone  County,  was  elected 
governor.  The  Trans-Mississippi 
exposition  was  held  at  Omaha  dur- 
ing his  term.  It  was  the  first  great 
exposition  held  in  this  region  and  it  brought  to  Nebraska 
exhibits  and  visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Nebraska  in  the  Spanish  War. —  In  1898  the  United 
States  went  to  war  with  Spain,  in  order  to  make  Cuba  free. 
Nebraska  sent  three  regiments  to  this  war.  The  First 
Nebraska  sailed  to  the  Philippine  Islands  and  was  gone 
more  than  a  year.  Colonel  Stotsenberg,  its  commander, 
was  killed  in  battle.  Many  Nebraskans  remained  in  the 
Philippines  or  have  since  gone  there  to  help  maintain  our 
flag  in  those  islands.  The  Second  Nebraska  regiment  under 
Col.  C.  J.  Bills,  was  sent  to  the  great  camp  at  Chattanooga, 
Tennessee,  and  became  part  of  the  army  in  reserve  until 
the  war  ended.  The  Third  Nebraska  regiment  under 
Colonel  William  J.  Bryan,  was  sent  to  Florida  and  afterward 
crossed  to  Havana. 


Gov.  WILLIAM  A.  POYNTEU. 
(From  Clements  collection.) 


282 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


The  Republican  Party  Returns   to   Power.     Governor 
Chas.  H.  Dietrich.—  From  1896  until  1900,  the  Nebraska 

state  elections  were  carried  each 
year  by  a  fusion  of  Populists,  Dem- 
ocrats and  silver  Republicans.  Dis- 
putes arose  among  these  parties  and 
the  Republicans,  making  a  great 
effort  in  the  campaign  of  1900,  car- 
ried the  state  by  a  small  major- 
ity, electing  Chas.  H.  Dietrich  of 
Hastings,  as  governor.  Governor 
Dietrich  remained  in  that  office 
only  about  four  months.  When 
the  legislature,  which  was  elected 
with  him,  met  in  January,  1901, 
there  followed  a  fierce  and  bitter 
struggle  over  the  election  of  two 
United  States  senators.  The  Re- 
publicans had  a  majority  in  the 
legislature  but  could  not  agree. 
After  an  all  winter's  fight  all  the 
candidates  withdrew  and  Governor 
Dietrich  with  J.  H.  Millard,  of 
Omaha,  were  chosen  senators. 


Gov.  CHAS.  H.  DIETRICH. 

(From  Clements  collection.) 


Governor  Ezra  P.  Savage.— 
Lieutenant-Governor  Ezra  P.  Sav- 
age, of  Sargent,  became  governor 
on  the  resignation  of  Governor 
Dietrich.  He  held  office  one  year 
and  eight  months.  During  his 
term  he  pardoned  former  State 
Treasurer  Bartley  from  the  peni- 
tentiary. Feeling  in  the  Republican 
party  was  so  strong  against  him,  that  Governor  Savage 
could  not  be  renominated. 


Gov.  EZRA  P.  SAVAGE. 
(From  Clements  collection.) 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 

Forestry. —  Two  large  forest  reserves  in  western  Nebraska 
were  set  apart  by  the  United  States  Government  in  1901. 
These  have  since  been  used  as  experiment  fields  for  growing 
trees,  mostly  evergreens:  It  is  hoped  through  them  to  find 
the  best  means  of  covering  western  Nebraska  with  groves 
and  forests. 

Farmers'  Co-operative  Unions. —  In  1902  a  new  farmers' 
movement  started  in  Nebraska.  This  was  a  union  of  farm- 
ers to  market  their  own  crops.  There  was  complaint  that 
the  large  elevator  companies  made 
too  great  profits  in  handling  what 
the  farmers  grew.  As  a  result  of 
this  movement,  there  are  now  sev- 
eral hundred  farmers'  elevators  in 
the  state  and  a  large  part  of  the 
crop  is  sent  to  market  through 
them. 

Governor  John  H.  Mickey.—  In 
1902  John  H.  Mickey,  Republican, 
of  Osceola,  was  elected  governor 
and  re-elected  in  1904.  His  term 
saw  a  rising  tide  of  prosperity,  in-  Gov.  JOHN  H.  MICKEY 

i-  v     i-i  •  •  (From  Clements  collection.) 

creased  rainfall,  higher  prices,  rise 

in  value  of  land  and  large  increase  in   manufactures  in 

Nebraska. 

The  Return  of  the  Rain.  Good  Times.— A  return  of 
the  rainfall  brought  fine  crops  and  better  times  to  the  whole 
state  and  especially  to  the  western  part.  At  the  same  time 
there  was  a  great  revival  of  business  in  the  United  States. 
The  factories  and  mines  long  closed  were  filled  with  busy 
workers.  So  many  workmen  were  needed,  that  America 
could  not  supply  them  all  and  more  than  a  million  a  year 
came  from  Europe  to  enjoy  the  good  times  and  high  wages 
here.  Farmers  in  Nebraska  found  prices  for  their  produce 
more  than  doubled  and  at  the  same  time  they  were  raising 
larger  crops  than  they  had  ever  grown  before. 


A  NEBRASKA  CORN  CROP.     (From  S.  D  Butcher  collection.) 


THRESHING  WINTER  WHEAT.     (From  S.  D.  Butcher  collection.) 

284 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE  285 

Alfalfa,  Winter  Wheat,  Sugar  Beets.—  Three  new  crops, 
alfalfa,  winter  wheat  and  sugar  beets  began  to  be  largely 
grown  in  Nebraska  about  the  year  1890.  All  three  had  been 
experimented  with  for  many  years  in  a  small  way.  The 
state  became  awake  to  their  value  at  this  time,  and  their 
cultivation  spread  from  farm  to  farm  and  from  county  to 
county.  Since  then  they  have  brought  millions  of  dollars 
to  the  people  of  the  state,  and  have  greatly  changed  methods 
of  farming.  Their  influence  has  only  just  begun. 

The  Cream  Separator. —  Another  great  change  which 
has  come  into  Nebraska  farming,  in  the  past  twenty  years, 
has  been  brought  about  largely  by  the  cream  separator,  by 
which  the  milk  fresh  from  the  cows  is  separated  into  cream 
and  skimmed  milk,  the  cream  going  to  butter  factories, 
while  the  milk  is  fed  upon  the  farm.  Dairy  farming, 
which  was  almost  unknown  in  the  early  years  of  Nebraska 
settlement,  is  thus  becoming  one  of  the  chief  industries  of 
Nebraska  farming. 

Rise  in  Price  of  Land. —  During  this  period,  land  has 
risen  very  rapidly  in  price,  in  eastern  Nebraska  from  $25 
and  $30  an  acre  to  $100  and  $150  an  acre,  and  in  western 
Nebraska  from  $1.25  an  acre  to  $10,  $20  and  even  $50  an 
acre.  Towns  everywhere  have  grown  rapidly.  New  rail- 
roads have  been  built  and  for  the  first  time  in  Nebraska 
history,  there  has  been  a  large  and  constant  development 
of  factories. 

Irrigation  and  Dry  Farming. —  Two  new  methods  of 
farming  were  followed  which  greatly  helped  the  state. 
These  were  irrigation  and  dry  farming,  or  summer  tillage 
as  the  latter  is  sometimes  called.  Under  the  former,  ditches 
were  dug  to  carry  the  water  from  the  streams  and  spread  it 
out  upon  the  fields.  Under  this  system  the  waters  of  the 
Platte,  the  Republican,  the  Loups,  the  Niobrara  and  other 
streams  were  led  out  upon  the  land,  making  great  fields  of 
grass  and  grain  where  before  little  had  been  raised.  By 
the  dry  farming  method  it  was  found  that  plowing  and 


286 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 


IN  LINE  FOR  A  HOMESTEAD.     (From  S.  D. 
Butcher  collection.) 


cultivating  the  land  without  a  crop  one  year  would  insure 

a  fair  crop  the  next  year,  even  though  the  seasons  were  dry. 

The  Kinkaid  Homestead  Act. —  On  June  29,  1904,  a  new 

homestead  act  took  effect  in  Nebraska,  called  the  Kinkaid 

act  from  Congressman 
Kinkaid  of  O'Neill  who 
introduced  it  in  Con- 
gress. This  act  gave 
settlers  on  certain  parts 
of  the  remaining  public 
land  in  Nebraska,  a 
homestead  of  640  acres 
by  living  on  the  same 
for  five  years  and  plac- 
ing improvements  to  the 
extent  of  $1,000  upon  it. 
About  8,000,000  acres  of  sandy  and  rough  land  remained  to 
be  taken  under  this  act.  At  many  land-offices,  there  was  a 
great  rush  for  this  last  United  States  land  in  Nebraska, 
and  in  1912  there  were  only  832,750  acres  to  be  taken. 

Reclamation  Act. —  In  1906  the  Reclamation  Act,  cham- 
pioned by  President  Roosevelt,  made  an  important  change 
affecting  western  Nebraska.  Under  this  act,  a  dam  was 
built  across  the  rocky  canyon  of  the  North  Platte  River  near 
Casper,  Wyoming,  making  a  great  lake.  The  surplus  water 
from  this  lake  is  brought  down  across  the  tablelands  of 
western  Nebraska.  Already  over  100,000  acres  have  been 
placed  under  irrigation  by  settlers  under  this  act. 

Taxes  and  State  Expenses.—  For  many  years,  the  state 
of  Nebraska  had  been  running  in  debt  to  pay  its  expenses. 
This  was  because  state  expenses  were  constantly  growing 
larger  and  the  grand  assessment  roll  was  becoming  smaller. 
(The  grand  assessment  roll  is  the  list  of  all  the  property 
in  the  state  made  by  the  assessors  on  which  taxes  are  levied) . 
During  the  hard  times,  after  the  panic  of  1893,  the  value 
of  property  went  down.  Many  people,  in  order  to  avoid 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 


287 


paying  taxes,  did  not  give  in  to  the  assessor  all  that  they 
had.  Many  taxes  were  unpaid.  To  pay  its  expenses,  the 
state  had  issued  more  than  a  mil- 
lion dollars  in  warrants  beyond  its 
income  from  taxes.  To  provide, 
more  money,  the  legislature  of  1903 
passed  a  new  revenue  law  the  aim 
of  which  was  to  compel  everyone 
to  give  in  all  his  property  for  taxa- 
tion and  to  raise  more  money  for 
state  expenses.  In  1905  the  legis- 
lature passed  another  act,  laying  a 
special  tax  to  pay  off  the  million 
dollars  of  warrants  which  the  state 
owed.  This  has  now  all  been  paid. 
Governor  George  L.  Sheldon. 

Railroad  Regulation.    Direct  Pri-     GOV.  GEORGE  L.  SHELDON. 
maries. —  George  L.  Sheldon,  Re-       (From  Clements  collection.) 

publican,  of  Nehawka,  was  elected 
governor  in  1906,  and  held  the  office 
two  years.  During  his  term,  the 
thirty  years'  railroad  struggle  in 
Nebraska  reached  some  definite 
results.  Free  passes  on  the  rail- 
roads were  abolished,  passenger  fare 
reduced  to  two  cents  a  mile,  and  a 
commission  of  three  persons  created 
to  regulate  the  relations  of  the  peo- 
ple to  the  railroads  in  the  state. 
A  direct  primary  law  was  also 
passed,  under  which  candidates  for 
office  must  be  named  by  all  the 
voters  instead  of  being  selected  by 
delegates  in  conventions. 
Governor  Ashton  C.  Shallenberger.  Bank  Guaranty. 
Daylight  Saloons.— In  1908  Ashton  C.  Shallenberger, 


Gov.  A.  C.  SHALLENBERGER. 

(From  Clements  collection.) 


288 


Democrat,  of  Alma,  was  elected  governor.  During  his  two- 
year  term,  the  legislature  passed  an  act  providing  for  a 
bank  guaranty  fund  to  insure  people  depositing  money  in 

banks  from  losses  by  bank  failure. 
An  act  called  the  ''Daylight  Saloon 
Act,"  requiring  liquor  sellers  to 
close  their  places  from  8  p.  m.  to  7 
a.  m.,  an  act  requiring  corporations 
to  pay  an  annual  tax,  an  act  to 
value  all  the  railroad  property  in 
the  state  and  an  act  providing  for 
the  election  of  the  peoples'  choice 
for  United  States  Senator,  were  also 
passed. 

County  Option. —  The  question 
of  county  option,  or  permitting  all 
the  voters  of  each  county  to  deter- 
mine whether   they   would    have 
(From  Clements  collection.)      saloons   in    that    county    or    not, 
became  the  exciting  political  issue  at  this  time. 

Governor  Chester  H.  Aldrich.— In  1910  Chester  H. 
Aldrich,  Republican,  of  David  City,  was  elected  governor. 
County  option  was  the  battleground  of  the  campaign  and  the 
result  was  the  election  of  a  governor  in  favor  of  county 
option  and  a  legislature  opposed  to  it. 

Initiative  and  Referendum. —  Among  the  important  acts 
of  the  legislature  of  1911  were  the  following:  An  act  pro- 
viding for  the  initiative  and  referendum  permitting  the 
voters  to  adopt  or  reject  laws;  an  act  providing  for  the 
commission  form  of  government  of  cities;  an  act  to  forbid 
the  selling  of  seed  of  any  kind  having  weed  seeds  therein; 
an  act  stopping  the  taxation  of  real  estate  mortgages;  an 
act  to  protect  the  water  in  Nebraska  rivers  and  lakes;  and 
an  act  to  secure  libraries  for  the  country  districts. 

Governor  John  H.  Morehead. —  The  Campaign  of  1912. 
At  the  election  November  5,  1912,  John  H.  Morehead, 


Gov.  CHESTER  H.  ALDRICH. 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE 


289 


Democrat,  of  Falls  City,  was  chosen  governor.  The  chief 
feature  of  the  campaign  was  the  spectacular  split  in  the 
Republican  party  between  the  supporters  of  President  Taft 
and  of  Ex-president  Roosevelt.  A 
new  party,  named  the  Progressive 
party,  was  organized,  which  sup- 
ported Mr.  Roosevelt.  In  Nebras- 
ka the  Progressive  party  and  the 
Republican  party  united  on  most 
of  their  candidates,  but  there  was 
much  strife  and  contention  in  bring- 
ing this  about  and  Woodrow  Wil- 
son, Democratic  candidate  for 
president,  carried  the  state  by  a 
plurality  of  37,000  over  Theodore 
Roosevelt  and  a  still  larger  plu- 
rality over  President  Taft.  The 
new  legislature  chosen,  which  met 
January  6,  1913,  had  55  Demo- 
crats and  45  Republicans  in  the  House,  18  Republicans 
and  15  Democrats  in  the  Senate.  At  this  election  five 
important  amendments  were  made  to  the  state  consti- 
tution, making  the  greatest  changes  in  that  document  since 
it  was  framed  in  1875.  The  new  amendments  provide 
for  enactment  of  laws  by  the  people  through  the  initiative 
and  referendum,  for  elections  once  in  two  years  instead  of 
every  year,  for  a  board  of  control  to  manage  the  state 
prison,  asylums  and  other  institutions,  for  home  rule  by 
cities,  for  increasing  the  salaries  of  members  of  the  legisla- 
ture from  $300  to  $600  and  limiting  the  time  for  introducing 
bills  to  the  first  twenty  days  of  each  session. 

The  Nebraska  Indians  To-day.—  There  have  been  great 
changes  in  the  Indian  tribes  which  once  called  Nebraska 
their  home.  The  Pawnees,  reduced  in  number  to  653, 
live  on  their  reservation  in  Oklahoma.  Next  to  the  Pawnees 
on  the  west  is  the  reserve  of  the  Otoes  and  Missouris,  living 


Gov.  JOHN  H.  MOREHEAD 


290  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

together  as  one  tribe  now  numbering  only  411.  They  have 
a  beautiful  rich  prairie  bordered  with  timber  for  their  home. 
Joining  the  Otoe  reserve  on  the  north  is  the  land  of  the 
Poncas.  Here  live  the  part  of  the  Poncas,  583  in  number, 
who  did  not  return  to  Nebraska.  Thus  side  by  side  in  the 
heart  of  Oklahoma  live  three  tribes  of  Nebraska  Indians. 
They  visit  each  other  and  keep  alive  the  memory  of  the 
land  in  the  north  where  they  once  lived.  They  still  think 
of  Nebraska  as  their  old  home  and  their  children  grow  up 
hearing,  from  the  lips  of  the  older  men  and  women,  many 
wonderful  stories  of  the  old  times.  The  former  Nebraska 
Sioux,  who  number  about  12,000  people,  live  on  their  great 
reservation  in  South  Dakota.  They  are  often  seen  in  the 
Nebraska  towns  along  the  border.  Part  of  the  Cheyennes 
and  Arapahoes  who  once  roamed  western  Nebraska  are 
now  in  Oklahoma  and  number  about  2,000.  The  remainder 
are  in  Wyoming. 

There  are  at  the  present  time  3,784  Indians  in  Nebraska. 
Of  these  the  Omaha  and  Ponca  are  the  only  native  Nebraska 
tribes.  The  Omaha  number  1,276  and  live  in  Thurston 
County.  The  Nebraska  band  of  the  Poncas  has  about  290 
members  and  lives  at  its  old  home  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Niobrara  River.  The  Indians  now  living  in  Nebraska  who 
were  moved  here  by  the  United  States  are  as  follows :  The 
Winnebagos,  1,063  in  number,  live  neighbors  to  the  Omahas. 
Their  former  home  was  in  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota.  They 
came  to  Nebraska  in  1865.  The  Santee  Sioux  were  moved 
from  Minnesota  in  1864,  and  settled  in  Knox  County  along 
the  Missouri  River.  There  are  1,155  of  them.  The  Sauk 
and  Fox  Indians  of  Missouri  were  located  in  1861  on  a 
reserve  in  southeast  Nebraska  and  northeast  Kansas.  They 
number  about  100. 

Rights  of  Indians. —  All  the  Indians  now  living  in 
Nebraska  are  citizens  and  have  the  same  right  to  vote  and 
to  hold  office  that  white  people  have.  They  own  some  of 
the  very  best  land  in  the  state,  much  of  it  rented  to  white 


Citiea  with  over  100,000: 

Cities  with  25,000  to  100,000:... 

Cities  with  r.,000  to  2i,000: 

Cities  with  1,000  to  5,000: .Alliance 

Smaller  Places: Stuart 

_      Count;  Seats  with  les«  than  1,000:.  Rushvllle 
Stale  Capital  thus:  ®     County  Seats  thus:  • 

!l 


Beatrice 


»l  renton  1: 

COCK      I     REI>  WILLOW    P' 


The  Matthews-  Nortlirup  Works,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.          j 


I 
NEBRASKA 

Scale  of  inllrs 

i        ;n      3n       40       :.o       i;i>       ;o       m 

— i — i i 1        i '        '        » 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE  291 

farmers.  Some  of  these  Indians  work  hard  and  are  learning 
the  white  man's  way  of  living,  while  others  cling  to  the  old 
life  and  love  to  spend  their  time  visiting  each  other  and 
telling  stories  of  the  days  before  the  white  men  came.  Their 
children  go  to  school  and  learn  the  English  language, 
although  the  Indian  languages  are  still  spoken  in  their  homes. 

Passing  of  the  Old  Life. —  In  a  few  years  the  old  lan- 
guages and  the  old  Indian  ways  will  be  gone  forever  and 
nothing  will  remain  of  Indian  life  in  Nebraska  but  its  story. 

Shipping  Nebraska  Grain. —  In  recent  years,  a  great 
change  has  come  in  the  route  over  which  Nebraska  grain 
is  shipped  to  market.  In  the  early  years  nearly  all  Nebraska 
products  were  shipped  east  over  the  railroads  to  Chicago 
and  the  Atlantic  ocean.  With  the  building  of  north  and 
south  railroads,  a  large  part  is  now  shipped  to  the  southern 
states  and  another  large  part  is  sent  to  the  mountain  states 
over  the  western  lines  of  road. 

Free  Libraries. —  About  1899  there  began  in  Nebraska  a 
movement  to  secure  free  public  libraries  and  reading  rooms. 
In  a  few  of  our  towns  and  cities  these  had  been  established 
for  many  years.  The  new  effort  was  to  make  at  least  one 
strong  library  in  each  county.  This  movement  is  still  going 
on  and  acts  of  the  legislature  of  1911  are  expected  to  bring 
good  libraries  well  cared  for  within  reach  of  every  citizen. 

The  Women's  Clubs. —  In  the  period  between  1890  and 
1900  the  woman's  club  movement  in  Nebraska  took  an 
active  form.  A  number  of  clubs  had  been  organized  in 
earlier  years.  In  1894  these  were  brought  together  in  a 
state  federation,  new  clubs  .were  organized  and  state  con- 
ventions held  with  great  interest  and  enthusiasm.  These 
women's  clubs  aim  to  inspire  and  promote  the  interests  of 
women  and  to  bring  their  influence  to  bear  for  better  schools, 
better  books,  better  home-making,  better  government,  and 
a  happier  and  more  beautiful  state. 

Retrospect. — This  story  of  Nebraska  as  a  state  closes  with 
the  year  1912.  It  is  one  hundred  and  one  years  since  the 


292  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

Astorians  and  Manuel  Lisa  ran  their  famous  boat  race  for 
a  thousand  miles  up  the  Missouri  River  past  our  shores.  It 
is  fifty-one  years  since  the  outbreak  of  the  great  civil  war 
between  the  North  and  the  South,  starting  from  the  contest 
between  slavery  and  freedom  in  the  Nebraska  country. 
The  story  of  our  state  extends  backward  and  reaches 
forward  and  in  either  direction  a  child  of  Nebraska  finds  it 
filled  with  interest  and  inspiration. 

Nebraska  a  Century  Ago.— Wonderful  is  the  story 
of  the  world  in  these  last  one  hundred  years  and  nowhere 
more  wonderful  than  here  in  Nebraska.  A  hundred  years 
ago,  our  state  was  an  unknown  wilderness  called  a  desert. 
Upon  it  roamed  40,000  Indians  and  millions  of  buffalo,  elk, 
and  deer.  Wild  geese,  swans,  ducks  and  other  waterfowl 
made  their  nests  undisturbed.  The  wild  grass  grew  every- 
where, the  sod  unbroken  by  the  plow.  The  waters  of  its 
streams  ran  unchecked  to  the  sea. 

The  mind  and  hand  of  man  have  transformed  Nebraska 
in  the  past  fifty  years.  A  million  and  a  quarter  of  white 
people  live  in  a  land  which  supported  only  one  thirtieth 
as  many  Indians.  Nearly  10,000,000  domestic  animals 
find  their  food  where  once  were  herds  of  buffalo,  elk  and 
deer. 

Nebraska  To-day. —  If  a  boy  should  spend  one  day  only 
of  his  life  in  visiting  each  Nebraska  farm,  he  would  need  to 
live  more  than  five  hundred  years  before  he  had  seen  them 
all.  A  thousand  cities  and  villages  in  our  own  state  are 
fed  from  these  farms,  and  the  surplus  food  which  we  ship 
to  the  people  of  other  states  and  countries  every  year  would 
fill  a  million  farm  wagons  or  make  a  railroad  train  of  freight 
cars  long  enough  to  reach  from  Chicago  to  Denver. 

Nebraska  Herds. —  Our  herds  of  horses,  cattle,  sheep 
and  swine,  if  driven  as  fast  as  a  man  can  walk  across  a 
bridge  over  the  Platte  River,  would  make  a  column  10,000 
miles  long  and  be  four  months  in  crossing  the  bridge  without 
stopping  to  feed  or  water. 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE  293 

Nebraska  Crops. —  Men  and  women  are  still  living  in 
Nebraska  who  have  seen  all  these  changes.  They  have 
seen  all  the  counties,  cities,  villages  and  farms  of  Nebraska 
created.  They  have  seen  the  number  of  bushels  of  wheat 
grown  in  this  state  increase  from  147,000  in  1859,  when  we 
shipped  our  first  surplus,  to  55,000,000  in  1910,  and  the 
number  of  bushels  of  corn  from  about  1,000,000  in  1859  to 
over  200,000,000  in  1910.  Nebraska  to-day  could  give 
every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  United  States  two 
bushels  of  corn  and  one  half  bushel  of  wheat  and  still  have 
enough  for  bread  and  seed  for  the  people  within  our  state. 

The  Old  Way  of  Travel  and  the  New.—  Instead  of  the 
Indian  squaw  leading  a  pony  over  a  dim  trail  across  the 
sunbaked  plains  one  hundred  years  ago,  with  the  poles  of  her 
tepee  dragging  at  the  pony's  side;  instead  of  the  slowly 
crawling  freight  wagon  with  its  twelve  yoke  of  oxen  of  fifty 
years  ago;  we  now  travel  daily  in  Nebraska  by  means  of  a 
thousand  passenger  trains,  thirty  thousand  automobiles 
and,  still  unsatisfied,  are  just  learning  to  spread  our  wings 
and  fly  through  the  air  faster  than  even  automobile  or 
express  train  can  travel. 

The  Telephone. —  When  our  fathers,  the  pioneers,  settled 
these  prairies,  to  talk  five  minutes  with  the  nearest  neighbor 
meant  sometimes  a  day's  drive  with  the  fastest  team.  Now 
their  children  and  grandchildren  sit  in  their  homes  and 
talk  with  their  friends  in  every  county  of  the  state,  and  if 
they  wish,  with  friends  far  away  by  the  lakes  or  the  shore  of 
either  great  ocean,  knowing  their  voices  and  even  feeling 
their  presence. 

Nebraska  Schools. —  The  schools  of  Nebraska  are  famed 
around  the  world,  for  our  state  has  had  for  many  years  the 
largest  percentage  of  any  state  in  the  Union  of  its  people 
able  to  read  and  write,  and  is  thus  the  most  intelligent 
state  of  the  most  intelligent  nation  in  the  world. 

Most  of  the  progress  in  the  Nebraska  schools  has  been 
made  in  the  past  forty  years.  In  that  tune  the  number  of 


294  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

schoolhouses  in  the  state  has  grown  from  about  300  to  7,000 
and  the  number  of  children  in  school  from  12,000  to  300,000. 
The  rough  logs  and  sod  walls  of  the  schoolhouses  forty 
years  ago  have  nearly  all  been  replaced  by  neat  wooden  and 
brick  buildings.  Instead  of  the  split  log  seats  of  the  earliest 
schoolhouses  with  their  home-made  desks  there  are  con- 
venient desks  of  polished  wood  and  metal.  In  place  of 
the  few  school  books  of  many  different  kinds  bought  by  the 
parents  in  many  different  states  and  brought  to  Nebraska, 
each  child  in  the  Nebraska  schools  to-day  has  free  books 
furnished  by  the  district  in  which  he  lives,  with  maps  and 
charts  and  apparatus  for  making  experiments  never  dreamed 
of  by  those  other  children  who  attended  the  Nebraska 
schools  in  the  early  days. 

Besides  these  great  improvements  in  the  common 
schools,  our  state  has  resolved  that  her  people  shall,  in  the 
future,  excel  even  more  than  in  the  past.  For  their  training 
in  all  the  arts  and  trades  of  life  she  has  added  free  normal 
schools  for  training  the  teachers,  and  a  free  university  and 
agricultural  college  where  a  boy  or  girl  may  study  and 
practice  the  best  that  may  be  learned  for  the  life  of  a  farmer 
or  engineer  or  mechanic  or  any  of  the  callings  by  which  men 
and  women  may  hope  to  earn  their  living  and  make  them- 
selves useful  to  the  state  in  which  they  dwell. 

How  Nebraska  Shall  be  Prosperous  and  Free. —  Nebras- 
ka is  a  rich,  great  and  beautiful  state.  She  cannot  stop 
where  she  now  is.  It  is  the  law  of  life  that  states  must 
grow  stronger  and  wiser  and  better,  or  they  must  decay. 
It  is  the  people  who  make  a  state,  and  the  children  to-day 
make  the  people  of  to-morrow.  Our  fathers  first  of  all  made 
this  state  free.  Then  they  made  it  prosperous.  They 
made  it  thus  with  labor  of  muscle  and  of  brain.  They 
did  the  rough  work,  they  built  the  bridges,  dug  the  wells 
and  broke  the  sod.  They  did  not  ask  an  easy  time.  If 
they  had,  Nebraska  would  never  have  been  built.  For  us 
is  left  to  do  the  finer  work,  to  use  the  improved  ways,  to 


NEBRASKA  AS  A  STATE  295 

develop  the  better  knowledge.     This  requires  greater  skill 
and  finer  training  and  persistent  labor. 

Hard  work  and  neighborly  kindness  made  life  happy  for 
our  fathers  even  in  the  sod  houses  and  dugouts  of  the  early 


MONUMENT  TO  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  ON  STATE  HOUSE  GROUNDS,  LINCOLN, 
NEBRASKA,  1912.     (Courtesy  of  Roy  Hindmarsh,  Lincoln,  bebrask. 


days.  As  they  grew  strong,  the  state  grew  strong  with  them 
because  every  man  earned  his  living.  No  one  lived  in 
idleness  upon  the  work  of  his  neighbor.  Their  children 
will  make  a  richer  and  better  and  greater  Nebraska  by  prac- 


296  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  NEBRASKA 

tice  of  the  two  chief  virtues  which  have  made  the  Nebraska 
of  to-day  —  honest  labor  and  neighborly  kindness. 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  was  the  new  capital  located  where  it  now  is  and  how  did  it  get 

its  name? 

2.  Which  would  you  prefer  for  a  home,  a  dobie  or  a  dugout,  and  why? 

3.  Why  were  railroads  built  so  rapidly  in  Nebraska? 

4.  What  were  the  results  of  the  grange  movement  in  Nebraska? 

5.  Why  was  a  new  constitution  made? 

6.  What  caused  hard  times  and  good  times  in  Nebraska  between  1873  and 

1888? 

7.  Was  it  better  for  each  settler  to  have  160  or  480  acres  under  the  land 

laws?     Why? 

8.  What  difference  in  the  action  of  farmers  and  of  railroad  men  when  they 

wished  more  pay  for  their  work?     Why? 

9.  Why  are  fewer  horses  stolen  now  than  in  1880-90? 

10.  Did  the  Farmers'  Alliance  do  wisely  in  starting  a  new  political  party? 

11.  Is  it  better  for  the  state  to  rent  or  sell  the  school  lands?     Why? 

12.  What  made  Nebraska  prominent  in  national  affairs  in  1854?     In  1869? 

In  1896?     To-day? 

13.  Ought  the  state  to  pay  its  expenses  or  go  in  debt?     Why? 

14.  What  is  needed  to  enable  the  state  to  pay  its  expenses? 

15.  What  do  you  think  is  the  most  important  thing  to  be  done  in  order  to 

make  Nebraska  a  better  state? 


GLOSSARY 


(NOTE:     The  spelling  of  certain  names  connected  with  Nebraska  has 

varied  in  different  periods.    In  some  cases  the  spelling  used  in  this  book 
varies  according  to  the  period;  e.g.,  Kanzas,  Kanzes,  Kansas.) 

Acaanibas ah-kan-nee'-bas 

Apaches ay-pach'-ees 

Arkansas ar'-kan-saw 

Bourgmont .  boor-mon' 

Brul6 broo-lay' 

Cabann6 kah-ban-nay' 

Charlevoix shar-lay-vwah' 

Chaui chow-ee' 

Cibola see-bo'-lah 

Comanche .  ko-man'-chee 

Coronado,  Francisco  Vasquez  de    .      .  kor-oh-nah'-do  vass'-keth 

De  Smet day-smett' 

Escanzaque ess-kan-zak' 

Essanapes ess-san-ah'-pes 

Gnascitares nas-si-tah'-rees 

Harahey hay-ray'-hay 

Hopi ho'-pee 

Isopete ee-so'-pee-tee 

Itan  —  Sometimes  spelled  letan.  This  word  is  not  found  in  any  of 
the  pronouncing  dictionaries.  It  seems  to  have  been  pro- 
nounced it'tan  or  yit'tan,  from  which  we  get  the  name  of  the 
present  village  of  Yutan. 

La  Hontan la-on-ton' 

LaJoie lah-zhwa' 

LeClerc lay-cler' 

Lisa lee'-sa 

Mallet,  Pierre .  mal-lay'  pee-air 

Mitain me-tan' 

Nicomi nee-ko'-mee 

Pawnee pah-nee' 

Pekatanoui pek-a-tan'-oo-ee 

Penalosa,  don  Diego  de        ....  pen-ya-lo-sa  dee-ay-go 

Petahauerat pee-tah-how'-erat 

Pitalesharu pee-tah-lee-shar'-roo 

Pizarro pi-zar'-ro 

Pueblo pu-eb'-lo 

Quivira ke-vee'-rah 

Sagean,  Mathieu sa-zhan'  mah-tee-you 

Santa  F6 sahn-ta-fay' 

Sarpy sar-pee' 

Shoshone sho-sho'-nee 

Skidi skee-dee' 

Tatarrax tah-tar-rash' 

Tirawa tee-rah-wah' 

Valee,  Andri val-lay'  an-dree' 

Voyageurs vwa-ya-zher' 

Zuhi zoo'-nyee 

297 


INDEX 


Acaanibas,  10. 

Adams  County,  85. 

Aldrich,  Governor  Chester  H.,  288. 

Alfalfa,  285. 

Algonquin  Indians,  228. 

Allis,  Rev.  Samuel,  242,  243. 

Alma,  288. 

American  Fur  Company,  41,  167. 

American  Horse,  152. 

Antelope  County,  187,  266. 

Antelope  Creek,  261. 

Apache  Indians,  6. 

Arapahoe  Indians,  43,  117.  131,  228, 

290. 

Arbor  Day,  206. 
Ankara  Indians,  37,  41. 
Arikaree,  51. 
Arickaree  Fork,  131. 
Ash  Hollow,  149,  246. 
Ashland,  7. 

Assessment  Grand  Roll,  286. 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  41. 
Astoria,  41. 

Astorians,  41,  55,  85,  292. 
Atchison,  90. 
Aunt  Manuel,  38. 
Aurora,  263. 
Australian  ballot,  277. 

Bad  Face  Band,  146. 

Bad  Lands,  216. 

Bandelier,  Adolf  T.,  12. 

Bank  Guaranty,  287. 

Baptist  Missionary  Union,  70. 

Bartley,  J.  S.,  279,  282. 

Bassett,  273. 

Battle  Creek,  255. 

Beal,  Senator  C.  W.,  197. 

Bear,  The,  98,  149. 

Beatrice,  110,. 257. 

Beaver  Creek,  47,  152. 

Beecher,  Frederick  H.,  133. 

Beecher  Island,  131. 

Bellefontaine  Cemetery,  40. 

Bellevue,  52,  55,  59,  65,  88,  96,  1 18, 

175,  238,  239,  243,  246. 
Benton,  Senator,  136. 


Bienville,  219. 

Big  Elk,  46,  52. 

Big  Foot,  278. 

Big  Horn  Mountains,  41,  146. 

Big  Horse,  25. 

Big  Sandy  Station,  139. 

Big  Springs,  85. 

Bjlls,  Col.  C.  J.,  281. 

Birds,  Early  Nebraska,  64,  65. 

Black,  Gov.  S.  W.,  253,  256. 

Black  Bear,  123. 

Black  Hills,  41,  79, 146, 152,  171,  265 

Black  Moon,  80. 

Black  Republicans,  252. 

Black  Robe,  79. 

Blackbird,  18,  26,  60,  226. 

Blackbird  Hill,  22,  26,  36,  59. 

Blackbird  Hills,  181. 

Blackfoot  Indians,  31,  42. 

Blair,  264. 

Blue  Creek,  146. 

Blue  Rivers,  226. 

Bonneville,  Capt.,  86. 

Boone  County,  95,  281. 

Bourgmont,  13. 

Bow  River,  18. 

Boyd  County,  19,  169. 

Boyd,  Governor  Jas.  E.,  276. 

Branding  Cattle,  271. 

Bridgeport,  43,  120. 

Bright  Eyes,  175. 

Broken  Bow,  190,  193,  278. 

Brown,  John,  100. 

Brownville,  111,  208,  246,  256,  264. 

Brule  Sioux,  97,  146. 

Bryan,  Wm.  J.,  280,  281. 

Buchanan,  President  James,  110, 251. 

Buck,  Nelson,  108. 

Buffalo  Bill,  128. 

Buffalo  County,  89. 

Buffalo,  First  Mention  of,  3. 

Bugeaters,  210. 

Bull  Bear,  147. 

Burlington  Railroad,  263,  269. 

Burlington  Strike,  273. 

Burt,  Governor  Francis,  238. 

Burt  County,  159,  266. 


299 


300 


INDEX 


Butler,  Governor  David,   129,   180, 

260,  262. 
Butler  County,  89,  104,  118,  261. 

Cabanne's  Trading  Post,  65. 

California  Trail,  42,  88. 

Calumet  Bluff,  27. 

Camp  Clark  Bridge,  265. 

Camp  Creek,  100. 

Camp  Dump,  270. 

Carlin,  F.  W.,  193. 

Carr,  General,  125. 

Casper,  Wyoming,  42,  82,  286. 

Cass  County,  129. 

Catfish  War,  243. 

Catlin,  George,  21,  56,  59. 

Catlin's    North    American     Indian 

Gallery,  61. 
Catlinite,  60. 
Cattlemen,  270. 
Cedar  Bluffs,  251. 
Cedar  County,  18,  27,  104,  226. 
Census,  First,  240. 
Census,  Second,  243. 
Central  City,  92,  264. 
Central  Pacific,  138. 
Central  Route,  90. 
Chadron,  126. 
Chadron  Creek,  154. 
Charlevoix,  13. 
Chaui,  114. 
Cherry  County,  187. 
Cheyenne  Indians,  37,  117,  122,  131, 

145,  228,  290. 
Cheyenne  War,  199. 
Cibola,  Seven  Cities  of,  1. 
Claim  Clubs,  241. 
Clay  County,  85,  266. 
Cody,  W.  F.,  128. 
Coif  ax  County,  89,  118r  266. 
Colonies  in  Nebraska,  251,  266. 
Colter,  John,  31. 
Columbus,  8,  123,  254. 
Comanche  Indians,  12,  117. 
Connor,  General,  123. 
Constitutions  of  Nebraska,  266,  289. 
Co-operative  Farmers '  Union,  283. 
Cooper  Family,  160. 
Coronado,    Francisco    Vasquez    de, 

1,218. 
Cortez,  6. 
Council-bluff,  26. 
Council  Bluff,  55. 
Council  Bluffs,  231. 


Council  Bluffs  Indian  Agency,  55. 
Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  77,  240. 
Councils  with  Indians,  25,  27,  36,  45, 

78,  80,  81,  148,  150,  151,  153,  156, 

170,  181,  242. 
County  Option,  288. 
Court  House  Rock,  120. 
Crazy  Horse,  126,  153,  155. 
Cream  Separator,  285. 
Crete,  270. 

Crook,  General  George,  126,  154. 
Crooks,  Ramsay,  41. 
Crounse,  Governor  Lorenzo,  278. 
Crow  Dog,  155. 
Crow  Indians,  37,  41,  147,  227. 
Crusaders,  266. 
Cub  Creek,  110,  257. 
Culbertson,  118. 
Cuming,  Thomas  B.,  239,  251. 
Cuming  County,  159,  250. 
Custer,  General,  George  A.,  126,  153. 
Custer  County,  193. 

Dairy  Farming,  285. 

Dakota  County,  15,  26,  251. 

David  City,  288. 

Dawes,  Governor  J.  W.,  270. 

Dawes  County,  126. 

Dawson  County,  85,  89,  124. 

Daylight  Saloon  Act,  287. 

Democratic  Party,  234,  251,  280. 

Denver  Trail,  89. 

De  Smet,  Father  Pierre  Jean,  77,  87, 

152 

De  Soto,  218. 
Deuel  County,  47. 
D'Iberville,  219. 

Dietrich,  Governor  Chas.  H.,  282. 
Direct  Primaries,  287. 
Dismal  River,  128. 
Dixon,  Gladys,  201. 
Dixon  County,  269. 
Dobies,  262. 
Dobytown,  166. 
Dodge  County,  89,  158,  162. 
Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  233. 
Douglas  (Lancaster  County),  249, 

260. 

Douglas  Bill,  235. 
Douglas  County,  89. 
Drought,  Great,  274. 
Dry  Farming,  285. 
Dugouts,  261. 
Dunbar,  Rev.  John,  243. 


INDEX 


301 


Dundy,  Judge,  174. 
Dundy  County,  187. 
Dunning,  190. 

Earliest  Nebraska,  213. 

Edmunds,  Doctor,  189. 

Eliza,  slave,  101. 

Elkhorn  River,  25,  47,  95,  226,  242, 

254,  269. 

Emery,  Robert,  139. 
Ely,  Rosalie  (Lisa),  40. 
Escanzaque  Indians,  6,  7. 
Essenapes,  9. 
Esta  Maza,  175. 

Falls  City,  100,  289. 

Farmers'  Alliance,  275. 

Fetterman,  Colonel,  150. 

Fifth  Cavalry,  125. 

Fire  Fighting,  135. 

First  Nebraska  Book,  74. 

First  Nebraska  Missionaries,  70. 

First  Nebraska  Regiment,  256,  257. 

First  Schools,  243. 

First  Settlers,  238. 

First  Survey  of  Nebraska,  104. 

Flood,  Great  of  1881,  269. 

Florence,  88,  243. 

Florence  Secession,  250. 

Flowers,  Early  Nebraska,  65,  82. 

Floyd,  Sergeant  Charles,  26. 

F'ontanelle,  Henry,  56. 

Fontanelle,  Logan,  94. 

Fontanelle,  Lucien,  94. 

Fontanelle,  65,  246,  254. 

Fool-Robes-Son,  47. 

Forestry,  283. 

Forsyth,  Col.  Geo.  A.,  131,  278. 

Fort  Atkinson,  14,  50,  55,  239. 

Fort  Bridger,  199. 

Fort  Calhoun,  25,  52,  278. 

Fort  Childs,  165. 

Fort  Crawford,  199. 

Fort  Farnam,  199. 

Fort  Fetterman,  199. 

Fort  Gothenburg,  199. 

Fort  Hall,  199. 

Fort  Halleck,  199. 

Fort  Hartsuff,  199. 

Fort  Independence  Rock,  199. 

Fort  Kearney,  89,  159,  199,  246,  257. 

Fort  Kearney,  New,  165. 

Fort  Kearney,  Old,  165. 

Fort  LaBonte,  199. 


Fort  Laramie,  81,  88,  97.  98,  123 
126,  147,159,167,  199,237. 

Fort  Laramie,  Council  of  1851,  78. 

Fort  Laramie,  Treaty,  81,  148,  151. 

Fort  Lewis,  199. 

Fort  Lisa,  37,  55. 

Fort  McPherson,  168. 

Fort  McPherson  Military  Cemetery 
198. 

Fort  Manila,  199. 

Fort  Pierre,  41. 

Fort  Robinson,  126,  152. 

Fort  Saunders,  199. 

Fort  Sidney,  199. 

Fort  Steele",  199. 

Fort  Wallace,  131. 

Fort  White  River  Camp,  199. 

Fort  William,  167. 

Four  Horns,  80. 

Fox  Indians,  290. 

Francis,  Charles,  196. 

Fray  Marcos,  1. 

Free  Silver,  279. 

Free  Soil  Party,  110. 

Freeman,  Daniel,  110,  257. 

Freeman,  Miss  Minnie,  163. 

Fremont,  John  C.,  56,  82,  232. 

Fremont,  83,  118,  242,  246,  254,  264. 

French  and  Indian  War,  222. 

Frenchman 's  Fork,  125. 

Furnas,  Governor  Robert  W.,  208, 
253,  257,  264. 

Gage  County,  85,  110,  257. 

Gale,  Dr.  John,  175. 

Garber,  Governor  Silas,  265. 

Garden  County,  44,  85,  89,  146. 

Gates  of  Sheridan,  107. 

Germans  in  Nebraska,  67. 

Ghost  Dance,  156,  277. 

Gillespie,  John  G.,  260. 

Gilson,  Mr.,  188. 

Goebel,  Mrs.  Adolph,  161. 

Gold  in  Nebraska,  253. 

Good  Templars,  266. 

Gosper  County,  85. 

Grain  Shipments,  291. 

Grand  Island,  44,  85,  145,  272. 

Grange,  265. 

Grangers,  270. 

Grant,  President  U.  S.,  152,  2:>ii. 

Gnasritares,  9. 

Grasshopper  Constitution,  26S. 

Grasshoppers,  183. 


302 


INDEX 


Grattan,  Lieutenant,  98,  149,  199. 

Gray  Eyes,  51. 

Great  American  Desert,  45,  231,  253. 

Great  Buffalo  Plains,  231. 

Greeley  County,  266. 

Grover,  head  scout,  132. 

'Grow,  Galusha  A.,  110. 

Half  Breed  Strip,  103. 

Hall  County,  85,  89,  145,  251. 

Hamilton  County,  266. 

Harahey,  4. 

Hard  Winter,  246. 

Hardy,  30,  117. 

Harney,  General,  149,  246. 

Hastings,  264,  282. 

Haumann,  Hannah,  188. 

Haumann,  Retta,  188. 

Haumann,  Tillie,  188. 

Hayden,  Professor,  56. 

Hayes  County,  187. 

Henry,  152. 

Hercules,  slave,  102. 

Herd  Law,  The,  178. 

Hitchcock  County,  82,  118. 

Holcomb,  Governor  Silas  A.,  210, 278. 

Holt  County,  162,  163,  187,  266. 

Homestead,  First,  110. 

Homestead,  Free,  255,  257. 

Homesteads,  270. 

Hopi  Indians,  1. 

Horse  Creek,  78,  148. 

Horse  Stealing,  273. 

Hot  Wind  of  1894,  274. 

Howard  County,  118,  160,  266. 

Hudson's  Bay  Company,  35,  232. 

Hunt,  Wilson  Price,  41. 

Illinois  Indians,  218. 
Impeachment  Trial,  278. 
INDIAN  CHIEFS. 

American  Horse,  152. 

Bear,  The,  98,  149. 

Big  Elk,  4,  6,  52. 

Big  Foot,  278. 

Big  Horse,  25. 

Black  Bear,  123. 

Black  Moon,  80. 

Black  Robe,  79. 

Blackbird,  18,  26,  60,  226. 

Bull  Bear,  147. 

Crazy  Horse,  126,  153,  155. 

Crow  Dog,  155. 

Esta  Maza,  175. 


INDIAN  CHIEFS  —  continued. 

Fontanelle,  Logan,  94. 

Fool-Robes-Son,  47. 

Four  Horns,  80. 

Gray  Eyes,  51. 

Iron  Eyes,  175. 

Itan,  70. 

Knife  Chief,  47. 

Little  Thief,  25. 

Long  Hair,  47. 

Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses,  152. 

Melhunca,  73. 

Pani  LeShar,  128. 

Pawnee  Killer,  108. 

Red  Cloud,  79,  123,  126,  146,  265. 

Roman  Nose,  133. 

Shake  Hand,  27. 

Shines  White,  172. 

Sitting  Bull,  79,  126,  152. 

Spotted  Horse,  199. 

Spotted  Tail,  126,  146,  151. 

Standing  Bear,  171,  176. 

Struck-by-the-Pawnee,  27. 

Tall  Bull,  125. 

Tecumseh,  35. 

Turkey  Leg,  125. 

Two  Crows,  181. 

Wajepa,  182. 

Whistler,  108. 

White  Bear,  51. 

White  Cow,  46. 

White  Crane,  27. 

White  Eagle,  173. 

White  Horse,  25. 

Indian  Council  at  Horsecreek,  150. 
Indian  Rights,  290. 
Indian  War  at  Pine  Ridge,  277. 
Initiative  and  Referendum,  288. 
Inman,  163. 

Iowa  Settlers,  First.  238. 
loway  Indians,  37,  46,  74,  75. 
Iron  Eyes,  175. 
Irrigation,  285. 
Isopete,  3. 
Itan,  70. 
Izard,  Governor  Mark  W.,  242,  250. 

James,  Governor  W.  H.,  263. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  24. 

Jefferson  County,  85,  104,  139,  266. 

Johnson,  President  Andrew,  258. 

Joliet,  Louis,  219. 

Jones,  Ben,  41. 

Julesburg,  90. 


INDEX 


303 


Kansas  City,  15. 
Kanzes  Indians,  15. 
Kearney,  138. 
Kearney  County,  85,  89. 
Kearney,  Fort  Phil,  150. 
Keith  County,  47,  85. 
Kennard,  Thos.  P.,  260. 
Kennerly,  Major  Wm.  Clark,  75. 
Kinkaid,  Congressman  M.  P.,  286. 
Kinkaid  Homestead  Act,  286. 
Kit-ke-hahk-i,  114. 
Knife  Chief,  47. 
Knox  County,  19,  169,  266. 

La  Flesche,  Joseph,  175. 

La  Flesche,  Mary,  175. 

La  Flesche,  Susette,  175. 

Lancaster  County,  89,  261. 

Land,  Rise  in  Price,  285. 

Land  Grants,  263. 

Land  Laws,  241,  270. 

La  Hontan,  9. 

La  Joie,  Madam,  38. 

Laramie  Plains,  124. 

Laramie  River,  68. 

Leavenworth,  General,  51. 

LeClerc,  Francis,  41. 

Lee,  Capt.  Thomas  J.,  104. 

Legislature,  First,  240. 

Lewis  &  Clark,  21,  24,  31,  35. 

Lexington,  124. 

Libraries,  Free,  291. 

Lincoln,    President    Abraham,    110, 

137,  256,  260. 

Lincoln,  89,  177,  260,  263,  263,  276. 
Lincoln  County,  198. 
Linwood,  118. 
Liquor  license,  252. 
Lisa,  Manuel,  34,  41,  55,  103,  292. 
Lisa,  Raymond,  38. 
Lisa,  Rosalie,  38. 
Little  Big  Horn  Battle,  126,  153. 
Little  Bow  River,  226. 
Little  Blue,  139. 
LeShara,  118. 
Little  Thief,  25. 
Logan  River,  177. 
Log  Cabins,  261. 
Lone  Tree,  92. 
Long,  Major  Stephen  H.,  45. 
Long  Hair,  47. 
Loup  River,  47,  227. 
Louisiana,  24. 
Louisiana  Purchase,  223. 


Louisville,  7. 
Lux,  Fireman,  201. 

McCoy,  Rev.  Isaac,  103. 

McKenzie,  General,  127. 

McKinley,  President  William,  280. 

McLellan,  Robert,  41. 

Madison  County,  266. 

Mahas  or  Omahas,  219. 

Majors,  Alexander,  102. 

Mallet,  Brothers,  15. 

Man-Afraid-of-his-Horses,  152. 

Mandan  Indians,  37,  59. 

Manners,  Chas.  A.,  104. 

Marquette,  Father,  218. 

Martha,  slave,  102. 

Martin,  George,  145. 

Martin,  Nathaniel,  145. 

Martin,  Robert,  145. 

Maseburg,  Mr.,  189. 

Maximilian,  Prince,  40,  52,  56,  62. 

Melhunca,  73. 

Merrick  County,  89,  93,  118. 

Merrill,  Moses,  70. 

Merrill,  Mr.  &  Mrs.,  243. 

Merrill,  Samuel  Pearce,  74. 

Mickey,  Governor  John  H.,  283. 

Middleton,  Doc.,  273. 

Midland  Pacific  Railroad,  263. 

Milford,  172. 

Militia,  State,  270. 

Millard,  J.  H.,  282. 

Miller,  Dr.  Geo.  L.,  173,  248. 

Miller,  Joseph,  41. 

Minneconjou  Sioux,  97. 

Mira  Valley,  163. 

Mission  Indians,  289. 

Missouria  Indians,  12,  13,  19,  46. 

Missouri  Compromise,  100,  234. 

Missouri  Pacific  Railroad,  269. 

Missouri  River,  (numerous references) 

Mitain,  38. 

Morgan 's  Island,  64. 

Mormon  Cow.  97. 

Mormon  Trail,  88. 

Morning  Star  Sacrifice,  117. 

Morrill  County,  89,  120. 

Morehead,  Governor  John  H.,  288 

Morton,  J.  Sterling,  56, 129, 206,  248. 

Murie,  Captain,  125. 

Nance,  Governor  Albinus,  268. 
Nance  County,  118,  123. 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,  24,  223. 


304 


INDEX 


Narrows,  The,  139. 

Neapolis,  251. 

Nebraska,  first  account  of,  15,  24. 

Nebraska,  naming  of,  83,  231,  232. 

Nebraska  churches,  First,  245. 

Nebraska  City,   89,   100,   165,  238, 

243,  253,  263. 
Nebraska  City  Cut  off,  89. 
Nebraska,  First  Bill.  233. 
Nebraska,  First  Code,  241. 
Nebraska,  First  Counties,  241. 
Nebraska  Indians,  226. 
Nebraska,  State  Flower,  204. 
Nebraska  Territory,  237. 
Nebraska,  the  Indian  Country,  232. 
Nebraska  Under  Three  Flags,  218. 
Nebraska,  Great  Seal,  202. 
Nebraska-Kansas  Bill,  234. 
Nebrathka,  233. 
Nemaha  River,  Great,  63,  103. 
Nemaha  River,  Little,  25,  64,  100, 

103. 

Nemaha  County,  266. 
Nicomi,  175. 
Niobrara  River,  19,  27,  99,  153,  169, 

172,  226. 
Niobrara,  269. 
Norfolk,  254. 
North,  Major  Frank,  122. 
North  Bend,  138. 
North  Platte,  41,  125. 
Northwestern  Railroad,  269. 
Nuckolls,  S.  F.,  101. 
Nuckolls  County,  85. 

Octotatoes  or  Otoes,  15,  219. 
Oglala  Sioux,  97,  131,  146. 
Oklahoma,  290. 
Omaha,  25,  45,  57,  65,  89,  94,  137, 

177,  240,  243,  246,  254,  281,  282. 
Omaha  Creek,  26. 
Omaha  Herald,  176. 
Omaha  Indian  Council,  181. 
Omaha  Indian  Dance,  66. 
Omaha  Indians,  18,  46,  55,  65,  70, 

94,  175,  226,  238,  290. 
Omaha  &  North  Western  Railroad, 

264. 

O'Neill,  286. 
Open  Well,  192. 
Oregon  Trail,  42,  77,  82,  85,  97,  148, 

159,  165,  167,  200,  237. 
Osage  Indians,  12. 
Osceola,  118,  268,  283. 


Otoe  County,  89,  102,  129,  158,  251 

260. 
Otoe  Indians,  12,  13,  19,  25,  37,  46, 

55,  65,  70,  226,  238,  289. 
Otoe  Missions,  72. 
Otoe  Reservation  in  Nebr.,  172. 
Overland  Mail,  90. 
Overland  Trails,  92,  85,  139. 

Pacific  Railroad,  57. 

Padoucas,  River  of,  16. 

Palladium,  Nebraska  First  News- 
paper, 57. 

Panimahas,  15. 

Pani  LeShar,  128. 

Panic  of  1857,  249. 

Panic  of  1873,  264. 

Panic  of  1893,  274. 

Panis  or  Pawnees,  219. 

Papillion,  47,  57. 

Papillion  Creek,  18,  47. 

Pathfinder  Dam,  83. 

Pawnee  Agency,  123. 

Pawnee  Council,  242. 

Pawnee  County,  129,  263. 

Pawnee  Indians,  2,  4,  13,  19,  37,  46, 
51,' 55,  70,  114,  147,  181,  199,  227, 
243,  254,  265,  289. 

Pawnee  Killer,  108. 

Pawnee  Scouts,  122. 

Pawnee,  Wars  of,  117. 

Pekatanoui  or  Missouri  River,  219. 

Penalosa,  don  Diego  de,  6. 

People's  Independent  Party,  279. 

People's  Ticket,  252. 

Petahauerat,  114. 

Petalesharu,  47,  242,  254. 

Phelps  County,  85,  266. 

Pierce,  President  Franklin,  236. 

Pierce  County,  163,  187. 

Pike,  Lieutenant  Zebulon  M.,  29. 

Pike's  Peak,  149,253. 

Pine  Ridge,  177. 

Pine  Ridge  Agency,  155. 

Pine  Ridge  Indian  War,  277. 

Pioneer  Preachers,  245. 

Pizarro,  6. 

Plainview,  163. 

Platte  County,  89,  118,  128. 

Platte  River  (numerous  references) 

Plattsmouth,  130,  263. 

Plum  Creek,  124. 

Political  Revolution  of  1890,  275. 

Polk  County,  118,  266. 


INDEX 


305 


Ponca  Creek,  170. 

Ponca  Indians,  12,  19,  37,  169,  226, 

265,  290. 

Ponca  Treaty,  170. 
Pony  Express,  90. 
Poppleton,  A.  J.,  130,  173. 
Populist  Party,  279. 
Potawatomie  Indians,  77. 
Potts,  31. 

Powder  River,  127. 
Powder  River  Country,  150. 
Poynter,  Gov.  Wm.  A.,  281. 
Prairie  Fire,  142. 
Prairie  Flower,  172. 
Prairie  Schooner,  261. 
Pre-emption,  270. 
Presbyterian  Church  Mission,  56. 
Prison  Rebellion,  268. 
Prohibition  repealed,  252. 
Progressive  Party,  289. 
Promontory  Point,  138. 
Pueblo  Indians,  2. 

Quarter  Stake,  105. 
Quivira  Land,  2. 

Railroad  Building,  263. 

Railroad  Regulation,  287. 

Rainfall,  Return,  283. 

Randolph,  G.  C.,  140. 

Randolph,  Hattie  P.,  140. 

Reclamation  Act,  286. 

Red  Cloud,  79,  123,  126,  146,  265. 

Red  Cloud  Agency,  New,  152. 

Red  Cloud  Agency,  Old,  152. 

Red  Cloud  City,  118. 

Red  Ribbon  Clubs,  266. 

Red  Pipestone  Quarry,  60. 

Relief  for  drought,  274. 

Republican  Party,  250,  256,  280. 

Republican  Party  returns  to  power, 

282. 
Republican  River,  4, 12,  30,  117,  131, 

146,  227. 

Republican  Valley,  108,  265. 
Richardson,  O.  D.,  242. 
Richardson,  Governor  W.  A.,  251. 
Richardson  County,  25, 103, 158, 251, 

266. 

Rock  Bluffs,  129. 
Rock  County,  187. 
Rock  Island  Railroad,  269. 
Roman  Nose,  133. 
Roosevelt,  President  Theodore,  286, 

289. 


Rosebud  Agency,  155. 
Royce,  Miss  Louise,  163. 
Rulo,  25. 
Rustler  War,  273. 

Sagean,  Mathieu,  9. 

Saint  Joseph,  90. 

Saint  Joseph  &  Denver  Railroad,  264. 

Saint  Louis,  35,  37. 

St.  Paul,  Nebraska,  160. 

Saline  County,  104,  266. 

Salt  Creek,  249,  261. 

Sand  Hills,  187. 

Santa  Fe,  14,  16,  29,  51. 

Santee  Sioux  Indians,  290. 

Sarpy,  Peter  A.,  56,  82. 

Sarpy  County,  18,  57,  89. 

Sauk  Indians,  290. 

Saunders,  Governor  Alvin,  257. 

Saunders  County,  70,  118,  251,  261, 

266. 

Savage,  Governor  Ezra  P.,  282. 
School  lands,  279. 
School  Money  Stolen,  278. 
Scott's  Bluff,  68,  89. 
Scott  'a  Bluff  County,  78,  85,  89. 
Second  Nebraska  Regiment,  257. 
Seward,  89,  104,  163,  201,  261,  263. 
Seymour,  Thomas,  59. 
Shake  Hand,  27. 

Shallenberger,  Governor  A.  C.,  287. 
Shattuck,  Miss  Etta,  163. 
Sheldon,  Governor  George  L.,  287. 
Shell  Creek,  47,  118,226. 
Sheridan,  General  Philip  A.,  126. 
Sheridan  County,  107,  187. 
Sherman,  General  W.  T.,  79,    151, 

166,  171. 

Shinn's  Ferry,  89. 
Shines  White,  172. 
Shoshone,  147. 
Sitting  Bull,  79,  126,  152. 
Sioux  City  &  Pacific  Railroad,  264. 
Sioux  County,  126. 
Sioux  Indians,  19, 27, 37, 38, 51 , 74, 79, 

95,  97,  108,  117, 120,  122, 145, 146, 

169,  181,  227,  243,  246,  265,  277. 
Sioux  Indian  Council,  1889,  156. 
Sioux  Treaty  near  Chadron,  153. 
Sioux  Wars,  149,  156,  166,  199,  257. 
Sixth  Principal  Meridian,  105. 
Skidi  Pawnees,  15,  114,  116,  170. 
Slavery  among  Pawnees,  117. 
Slavery  in  Nebraska,  100. 


306 


INDEX 


Slavery  Prohibited,  255. 

Small  Pox,  20. 

Smithsonian  Museum,  22. 

Snake  Indians,  41,  147. 

Sod  Houses,  261. 

Spanish  Caravan,  The,  12,  221. 

Spanish  War,  281. 

South  Pass,  42,  82,  86. 

South  Platte  Secession,  253. 

Spencer  Seven  Shooter  Rifles,  123, 133. 

Spotted  Horse,  199. 

Spotted  Tail,  126,  146,  151. 

Spotted  Tail  Agency,  152. 

Stacey,  Mr.,  188. 

Stage  Coach,  90. 

Standing  Bear,  171.  176. 

Stanton  County,  104,  266. 

Statehood,  first  attempt,  255. 

Statehood,  attained,  258. 

Steam  wagon  road,  253. 

Stuart,  Robert,  41. 

Stotsenberg,  Colonel,  281. 

Storms,  Great,  158. 

Strike  at  Omaha,  270. 

Strike,  Great  "Q",  273. 

Struck-by-the-Pawnee,  27. 

Sublette,  Milton,  86. 

Sugar  beets,  285. 

Summer  Tillage,  285. 

Summit  Springs,  125. 

Sun  Dance,  156. 

Surveyors,  103. 

Tabor,  Iowa,  100. 

Taft,  President  Wm.  H.,  289. 

Tall  Bull,  125. 

Tatarrax,  2. 

Taxes,  286. 

Tecumseh,  35. 

Telegram,  First,  256. 

Telephones,  294. 

Thayer,  Governor  John  M.,  130,  242, 

243,  254,  256,  272. 
Thayer  County,  85,  266. 
Thedford,  188. 
Thomas  County,  187. 
Thurston  County,  26. 
Tibbies,  T.  H.,  176. 
Timber  Claims,  270. 
Tipton,  T.  W.,  130. 
Tirawa,  116,  120. 
Trans-Mississippi  Exposition,  281. 
Tree  Planter's  State,  210. 
Turkey  Leg,  125. 


Turk,  The,  2. 

Two  cent  railroad  fare,  287. 

Two  Crows,  181. 

Umphrey,  E.,  140. 

Underground  Railroad,  100. 

Union  Pacific  Railroad,  90,  123,  126, 

136. 
Ute  Indians,  117,  147. 

Vallee,  Andri,  41. 
Valley  County,  266. 
Vigilance  Committees,  273. 

Wade,  Kid,  273. 
Wajepa,  182. 
Walker,  C.  H.,  208. 
Washington  County,  25. 
Wayne  County,  104. 
Webster,  John  L.,  173. 
Weeping  Water  River,  25,  65,  74. 
Western  Engineer  Steamboat,  45. 
Western  Nebraska,  269. 
Westphalen,  Mrs.  Peter,  162. 
West  Point,  254. 
Whig  Party,  234. 
Whistler,  108. 
White  Bear,  51. 
White  Cow,  46. 
White  Crane,  27. 
White  Eagle,  173. 
White  Horse,  25. 
White  River  Valley,  152. 
White  Stone  Hills,  257. 
Wichita  Indians,  118. 
Wilcox,  (Merrill)  Eliza,  70. 
Wild  Cat  Days,  249. 
Wilkins,  Wm.,  232. 
Wilson,  President  Woodrow,  289. 
Wilson,  Mrs.,  162. 
Winnebago  Indians,  290. 
Winter  Wheat,  285. 
Woman's  Clubs,  291. 
Woodhurst,  Mrs.,  268. 
Wounded  Knee,  135,  156,  278. 
Wyeth,  Nathaniel  J.,  86. 

Yellowstone,  Steamer,  59,  62. 
York,  263. 
York  County,  89. 
Young,  Brigham,  56. 
Yutan,  71. 

Zuni  Indians,  1. 


A     000086297    9 


